Light graffiti, also known as light painting, is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera.
This post features examples of beautiful and creative light graffiti.
Light Painting by rafoto
Orbing by Marc B.B
Play with Light by ddqhu
Light Graffiti by Lightmark
Poseidon by Eric Staller
Singer by versi16
Light Painting by Toby Keller
Botanical by Michael Bosanko
Max Ophuels Preis by Lichtfaktor
Under My Umbrella by Jacob Carter
Sax A Phone by Eran Hakim
Window Dressing by Eric Staller
Blinder by M R I
Snakes on a Pain by El Endemoniau
Rockstar by Simon Dehn
Air Fireball by Ben
Neon BMX by Sumthin’ Luv
Pac-Man Light Graffiti by robokon_gt
Waste Removal by The Path of Light
Armchair Alien by Michael Bosanko
For more inspiration, check out: Light Graffiti Cars
smmshad
Air Fireball looks like a Kamehameha from Dragonball Z, and btw, these things are awesome. Is it possible to create these in real life and actually use them instead of being graffiti?
Jan 8th, 2009
Kid C
Oh sweeet.. Great post.
I just ordered a whole bunch of coloured LED’s to have a play with this stuff.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Jan 8th, 2009
julesandrebrown
Wow !!!!! I WANT TO DO THIS?!?!?!
How do I do it?
Jan 8th, 2009
thomas
julesandrebrown, just use long exposure, you might need to get a DSLR if you don’t have one.
BTW on that Air fireball by ben, how did he manage to freeze them in the air while using long exposure ?
Jan 9th, 2009
C's
WAAAAH.. I love this examples.
Nice collection. Thanks
Jan 9th, 2009
DoubleA.
You should check this thread as well if your interested in this type of photography.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightpainted/
Jan 9th, 2009
Norbert
Maybe my work fit to this topic too
http://www.norphos.com/paint/
All done using light. Not much postproduction done.
Jan 9th, 2009
dave
These can all be photoshop, henceforth, what is the point?
Jan 9th, 2009
chad
Thomas you can do a long exposure and do a flash of light at the start and draw with the lights afterwards.
check out a set me and some friends did a few years ago..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bantamdraper/sets/72157594377496552/
although clearly not as refined as the ones above its still a fun thing to mess with.
Jan 9th, 2009
Anukul
Very very Beautiful & Creative.
Cheers!
Jan 9th, 2009
technology freak
sweet! i love it, because it can also be a good excusa for friends to get together and have fun with lights, lovely pictures!
Jan 9th, 2009
Josh Wilder
Wow, truly amazing.
jess
Jan 9th, 2009
Jorge
Very nice collection! As Chad says, use a flash light at the start of the long exposure in order to get the air fireball effect.
Jan 9th, 2009
oyunlar
supper thankss :)
Jan 9th, 2009
Andy
Wow Dave… wow.
Jan 9th, 2009
Elaine
Wow this is amazing . . . love it!
Jan 9th, 2009
Richi
Cool pictures, wish they had more quality.
Jan 9th, 2009
chibbert
Light painter since 2006, check out my Light is Life series. Light characters in Paris !
http://www.christopher-hibbert.com/index-us.html
Jan 9th, 2009
Peach
This isn’t a trick of photography, but it is light graffiti – check it out:
http://random-international.com/temporary-graffiti/
Jan 9th, 2009
Leion
Very cool! I like all of them! Someday I will make a good light picture as well…
Jan 9th, 2009
Gwen Bacilla
I love the light graffiti pics! Keep it up!
Jan 9th, 2009
kristy
you might also like this animation made with candle light – something so beautiful about moving light images without any vfx….
http://twoifbysee.blogspot.com/2008/12/electrobel-lights-candle-for-holidays.html
Jan 9th, 2009
Art Who?
Dave –
Art is not just a name before Garfunkel.
Jan 9th, 2009
Bunny got Blog
These are great,love your creativity.
Jan 9th, 2009
nobody
On the mid air I can think of a way to do this. The way I would do it is a double exposure. Take the shot of the in air then take another long one.
I would play with the order of the shots
Jan 9th, 2009
Monirul Pathan
These are quite inspirational!
Heres another!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladeda/2520673010/sizes/o/
Enjoy!
Jan 10th, 2009
yaused2bgood
There’s a way to do this w/o spending a lot of money and/or resources. Drop a hit of double-dipped blotter, light a cigarette in the restroom, turn out the light and wave yr stogy in front of the mirror as fast as you safely can and you’ll begin to see the tracers….the only problem is that these elusive boogers have never been caught on film….only by the human mind. Have fun!!!
Jan 10th, 2009
Peter
How is this “Graffiti” if it’s not even permanent or on any property?
Jan 11th, 2009
haroon
dude it’s developed in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP using high
veloctiy light plugins using real pictures then
blur at the end so u won’t even recognize any
mistake!
Jan 11th, 2009
kiran
Very interesting.Thanks…
Jan 12th, 2009
Diegoz
Awesome!
Jan 12th, 2009
Jammy
Hey, nice post…
Just awesome :-)
Keep going
Jan 13th, 2009
Paul
The way he did the freezing in mid air is not necessarily double exposure as much as using the flash… if it’s dark enough, he jumps at the start of the photo when the flash goes, thereby exposing the scene at the beginning and allowing them to move around without getting exposed…
Jan 19th, 2009
El Endemoniau
A friend (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcipriani/) show me yesterday this article… and i am really suprised to see one of my pictures. Long exposures are fun and adictive. It’s only need any camera with manual mode (not DSLR only).
If you want some tips, tricks, tools or tutorials take a look here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightjunkies/
Jan 19th, 2009
Photoshop??
Photoshop? Are we so jaded as a society that you think you can even do this in Ps? Please – learn a bit about photography and art in general. Did Picasso do this in Ps when he light painted the image of the bull? I think not.
Jan 22nd, 2009
pantless crab
sprakler and a star filter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantlesscrab/3119684796/
Jan 23rd, 2009
Gromitch
Really amazing creative images!!!
Jan 23rd, 2009
carlos
Dave,
I assume you also eat a tasteless paste that has all the nutrients your body needs and ride a bicycle everywhere you go…..
Oh, and it’s “hence”. “Henceforth” means from this point on……
Jan 24th, 2009
Ekkimus
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Light-cellar/164379
I tried to take some pics similar to the guitar thing some months ago… I really like that style!
Jan 25th, 2009
sums
wow this is amazing… really this is cool i love the umbella one and the snake one a lot
Jan 31st, 2009
Phillip Gibb
incredible.
were all these a single exposure?
Phill
Feb 6th, 2009
moody
dog this is some crazy lookin graffiti. im tryin to get some. but yea this messes wit your head so bad if you were messed up.
moody
May 27th, 2009
Deep
These are simply fantastic. Nice deal of creative minds. Few of these can be made downloadable with the copyrights intact. People love it. What say?
Jun 25th, 2009
Laser Animation
These are really incredible.
As a laser show producer I am always fascinated by light and what can be done with it. I may look into doing something like this myself.
Light art rocks.
Tim
Jul 7th, 2009
ghprod
Really good!!
armchair really smooth paint!
high technic photos!
Jul 24th, 2009
timmy
very nice ya….
Jul 29th, 2009
ben
great post ,very beautiful
Aug 19th, 2009
Sharon
AWESOME IMAGES!!!!
If you have any tips for an amateur photographer on how I can get those kinds of images.. PLEASE tell me your secret.
Just AWESOME!
Sep 13th, 2009
iLeiti
NICE ART. !
Oct 31st, 2009
jess
those were SWEET! check mine out!!!
Nov 4th, 2009
yhinz
wow!! light painting sure is fascinating!!
Nov 25th, 2009
omats
GREAT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nov 25th, 2009
moazzam
great pictures, i have never seen like dis before
keep it up
:)
Nov 26th, 2009
ether
the link is a long exposure that two friends and I made one night.
Jan 14th, 2010
Scott Bittinger
Here are some I did myself!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93515081@N00/sets/72157623217791326/
Jan 15th, 2010
Michael
Ah i love love love this technique. I’ve made entire scenes (unfortunately i was working alone so i did multiple exposures and ps’ed them all together in the post. i know, i’m ashamed :( haha). The possibilities are literally endless when it comes to thing like this.
and Dave, yes, you could do this in photoshop. you can make ANYTHING in photoshop. but that’s not the point. take some time to try this, it feels really good when you get it all finished up and you see the end result. Try and not rely so heavily on photoshop, there have been artists who achieved great things without computers in general, letalone photoshop.
Jan 18th, 2010
lulu
try not to be so bitter about it dave. art is expression, freedom. i could not do any of this in photoshop to save my life. and in a lot of way, i hope i never can. i do it the old fashioned way- move lights around while the camera is still processing. its so much better to just do it yourself.. people dont get that these days. why paint a portrait of something or someone, if you can pay for someone to do it for you at michaels with a machine that will print your photo and texture it? why ever draw another pencil sketch if you can draw and bend your way around photo shop? two reasons.
1. technology is not something you can feel or touch.. if i make something in photoshop i can copy it thousands of times, send it to hundreds of people and have half of them saying they made it to someone else before i even get up from the chair at my desk.
2. the product, if you make it yourself, will always have your imprint on it. when youre done, you can feel a sense of pride in it, whatever it may be. people pay thousands of dollars for paintings because they are originals, crafted by artists who took their time, effort and soul to paint it. walk the streets, put them in galleries, ship them off….
and the feeling you get when you do it
*breathes in*
every artist, of any type, knows what i am speaking of.
and photoshop can be useful in someways. but overall man, you gotta respect the older way of things. people are losing grip with everything concrete in this life. its slipping away.. and before we know it all we are going to have is a computer chip that lets us be a computer chip.
Jan 29th, 2010
kang
i agree lulu…
ppl now and days rely soo much on computers they forget the originiality the simplicity and love of creating something from the heart..with your own hands and thoughts!!!
Feb 8th, 2010
ariel
I want to do this, and i have absolutely no idea where to begin.. So please help me! This looks absolutely amazing, an inspiring!!
Feb 28th, 2010
J-Man
Lulu,
You are so right. I had never thought about it in that way, but now…
I totally agree.
Thank you :)
Mar 2nd, 2010
rachel
For all those wondering how to make these photos, it isn’t really that hard.
All you do is on your camera (it doesn’t have to be a DSLR, though it does help) find where you can adjust the shutter speed. Sometimes, on a digital camera it can only be around 8 seconds, but that it is enough.
Put the camera somewhere steady (a tripod, chair, the ground) and make sure it doesnt move, or else the photo will be blurry :(
Press the button, then you or a friend stands in front of the camera waving the torch around like a madman as it takes.
It is so much fun!
Mar 5th, 2010
Flo
Very cool! Love it…the armchair alien is the best one in my eyes. These examples have inspired me to do something similar on my websites.
Apr 11th, 2010
shalini
good collection to expand…………….
Apr 14th, 2010
rohini
its………..simply…….awesme
Apr 29th, 2010
Vladi
orbing is awesome! what kind of light design was used to make that one?
May 7th, 2010
Beck
breath taking stuff
i just wanna go experiment with my friends
i found a passion for photography again
May 12th, 2010
arvind
The best.your mind flying like bird & swimming like fish .EXPECTING more.
Jul 10th, 2010
Chantel
i’ve been saying im going to practice my light writing for the longest now i really have to those pics are awsome
Aug 5th, 2010
JTKirk
@ dave … way to use a big word incorrectly. henceforth means ‘from now on’. you should have stuck with ‘hence’ or perhaps ‘thus’, but instead you made yourself look like a tool. back to school, junior.
Sep 4th, 2010
rozi
they were intresting.
Sep 28th, 2010
Thomas
Here is my contribution of light experiments :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/audiotribe/sets/72157609076532275/
Oct 4th, 2010
rain
The fourth image AS like therr is a Ghost in it
Oct 29th, 2010
angel woody
how do you do that?!?!!?!? its awesome
Nov 18th, 2010
Snoopy
amazing luminografie :-) GJ
Dec 23rd, 2010
Linn
omg, they are like amazing!! <3
Feb 18th, 2011
Momo
WOAH! These are awesome! I love this. I want to do this…But some of them were fake XD
Feb 27th, 2011
heh
@ angel woody just slow down ur shutter speed on a camera. and draw what u want and it will take the pic
Apr 1st, 2011
fakhri
the 3rd is creepy
Jul 11th, 2011
Drogated
where can i share my fotos?
Apr 1st, 2012