Painting with Light and the LED 600
Cool Lights customer Harold Ross has an unusual and unique technique that he uses to make still photos that have an almost “haunting” quality to them. Here’s what Harold has to say about his methods.
I am a still photographer who has been painting with light for over 20 years. Light painting, for me, involves using a long time exposure during which I paint light onto the subject. I am not into capturing “light trails”, but rather use light painting to bring out detail, color, texture and dimension in my photographs.
I have recently taken an interest in shooting outdoors at night, with larger subject matter than I’m used to shooting in my studio. I needed a large light source to get the soft effect I am looking for, and this source needed to be portable, light and bright, as well as somewhat large.
I decided to try Cool Lights CL-LED600 panels, 5600K, Flood configuration, but I wanted a source larger than 10″x10″, so I purchased two of them with the intention of bolting them together to create a 10″x20″ unit. I made a custom adapter that keeps them tightly and securely mounted against each other.
Was I ever impressed with these lights! Very bright, dimming, bank switching, robust, and light. I purchased a Bescor battery belt, a Y cable and extensions, and I was ready to go.
My first image was of a 60′ section of a concrete wall surrounding a Quaker Cemetery in Pennsylvania, and I had trouble at first because the lights were so bright that my initial tests (shooting digitally) were way too bright. I ended up switching off every other bank, dimming down, and finally I was in a reasonable exposure range for f/16.0 on my lens at ASA 50.
Quaker Cemetary Wall
As I am moving the lights during the exposure, I can effectively create a very soft look, while retaining lots of detail by raking the light.
Tree
For the image of the farmer with his tractor, the exposure for him was only 1 second on the left and 2 seconds ( moving the light up and down in a 5′ sweeping motion) on the main light, or right side.
Farmer and Tractor
In the Garage image, which is a collaboration with fellow photographer Jim Lawson, the car is lit with the LED panels and the back wall is done with a small LED flashlight.
Garage
I’ve been enjoying the lights immensely, and they do everything I wanted them to do, at less than 25% of the cost of the next option, a 12″ panel specifically made for still photographers.
I am a huge fan and a dedicated Cool Lights customer.
Harold Ross
Thanks Harold for your kind words and sharing your photos with us! For more of Harold’s great work, please go to his site here.
