What do you need? Well, hopefully your wedding photographer has you covered. But if not, you’ll need a camera with a manual exposure and capable of a long shutter speed. A tripod to keep the camera stable (IT CANNOT MOVE) and a flashlight or light source of some kind. This is your wand. Sparklers would also work, of course. Or glow sticks.
Obviously, this is best done at night. But in a dark room also works.
Now – How to Paint!
Simply put? You point the light at your subject, this acts as a flash and exposes the subject (probably the bride and groom?) Then, move the light.
It’s probably a clever idea to combine two photos in post-production. Take a photo of your subject (the bride and groom) and then create the light painting, then combine the two.
The difficult here is that you never know exactly what you’ll get until after the photo is taken. So try doing it a bunch of different ways and then adjust as best you can. It’s trial and error. So, probably best to practice it before the big day!
Okay, so what can you do with light painting? How can you use it to create some breathtaking wedding photos?
Well, there is the obvious “writing a love heart” or writing each other’s names.
You could paint a rope wrapped around the groom to show how he is now trapped for all eternity. (or til death do them part)
You could frame the couple against an excellent backdrop (such as the moon, the beach or a forest).
How about angel wings for the bride?
Want to see how chaos really works? Try giving a flash light to all the children at the wedding, send them off into the dark woods and never hear from them again… I mean let them lose while taking a prolonged exposure photograph. Might just look like a fairy or pixy gathering!
Some truly talented people can recreate an umbrella or disc of some kind, which is an incredible way to frame the newlywed couple.
OR perhaps a rain (shower) of “sparks” falling upon the location of the ceremony. This can be very poignant along the carpet the bride walked down earlier with the altar behind.
Whatever your “bright” idea, be sure to make it a good one. Because your special day only comes once in a lifetime (hopefully, but we know the stats). The photos you take will form the happy memories you will have for decades to come. And the ability to create such incredible artwork by such a simple technique as light painting is something we are truly lucky to have. Just like each other, aww…
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