Light Painting Flowers at Night

[Manfred M]

I just got back from a presentation at the photo club where I am a member, by photographic artist Linda Rutenberg.

She showed some of her work that might be of interest to the flower photographers here. She has done a lot of work light painting flowers at night, primarily in botanical gardens. Examples from her website are shown here:

http://www.lindarutenberg.com/garden-at-night/

http://www.lindarutenberg.com/after-midnight/

http://www.lindarutenberg.com/english-garden-at-night/


Her tools are a camera on a very sturdy tripod. a Maglight flashlight with a diffuser and a snoot made from black construction paper. Closeups are taken at f/8 for 30 seconds. Medium shots run for 1 minute and the broader scenes take 5 minutes. About 80% of the exposure is done with the diffuser and the details are hit with the snoot for around 20% of the shot. She does not use either flash (too bright and spread out) or white LED lights (too blue) in her work.

Those of us in the temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere are out of luck right now, but I definitely want to try some of these techniques next spring.

[ST1]

Thanks for sharing this Manfred, there are some wonderful images in the links you posted. I particularly liked the Tulip and Torch Ginger in the third link. The technique described and subjects chosen has given me some ideas for my own garden flower photography.


Sent from somewhere in Gods County using Tapatalk

[DanK]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.

Some of the individual flowers are not all that dissimilar from what one can get indoors, but the lighting is different--as you point out, less spread out. What I find most intriguing is the shots that take advantage of the natural setting of a flower, or that include a group of plants. Of course, one has to have a very still night for exposures of plants that long. And stacking would be next to impossible.

I think I will try using light painting indoors as well.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks for posting... Another technique I will store in my bucket list