Nighttime Landscape Lightpainting

[dave.gt]

Last year I remember seeing a long "flashlight"/stick at CI and someone mentioned it was for light-painting. Now, I have done some light-painting of vintage sports cars in close quarters. However, there are so many different types of light sources available these days.

If one were to use a portable light source for light-painting the foreground of a Landscape Astro scene, what are the best choices?

 

[dave.gt]

Ok, specifically about the light... it seems to be somewhat related to portrait lighting in the studio.

1. What type of Light? LED? Or does it matter depending on the final effects?

2. How powerful?

3. Panel? Flashlight?

4. I am sure there are those in this forum who have used lighting for night landscapes and your input would be greatly appreciated.

There is certainly an art to night landscape lighting and I am anxious to get started, but equipment is the big question and I would not want to spend a lot of time experimenting with failures due to something as simple as selecting a particular type of light.:facesmack:

 

[dave.gt]

After hours of delving into the dark (pun intended), there seems to be a number of Fine Art Photographers who have mastered the Art of Night Lighting Landscapes, here are a couple:

https://www.haroldrossfineart.com/

https://adamwoodworth.com/

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I do a lot of nighttime work, both with flash and with continuous lighting. I often forget which I used after a while, but I have a few suggestions that I have found very helpful.
I highly recommend Lupine Light Systems for their headlamps and flashlights. They are expensive, but unlike any other light I have used. They are made for biking and things like that, but they function extremely well for any night work. I have two lamps -- the Piko which is a small headlamp (still very powerful) and a Betty headlamp, which is incredibly powerful. I spoke to the company, and when they found out I was a photographer, they offered to change the LED's in the Betty to 5000K LED's, instead of 6500 or so, and in doing so they have noticeably better color reproduction. They also put a red LED in the center, instead of the typical white LED. This allows me to have a low intensity light that is easier on the eyes while I am working with the camera, and then still have the powerful beam when needed. I think these changes might have been free, but if they charged me, it was only a nominal fee. The lights are a system, and the batteries are interchangeable and you can buy different harnesses and mounts, as well as a USB adapter to charge your devices or to charge the batteries from USB. The accessories are pretty reasonably priced, and everything is very well made. It seems as though it is mostly made in Germany. They do not have a distributor in Iceland, so I bought directly from the company, and the service was great. They will update old models to new spec for a reasonable fee and so on. The other feature which I have found very useful is that you can get the lamps with bluetooth and app triggering. This can be very useful if you have multiple lights, or if you want to control the time the light is on without actually being next to it and so on.

If you are interested in flash, I have had great luck with the Profoto A1 and B1 flashes. Both have powerful and useful modeling lamps that can be used for continuous lighting as well. Obviously, these are not color critical solutions, though they both have a rather warm and pleasing lighting.

My night photography is rather different than those linked above, but I can post a few shots made by using continuous lighting to fill in the light...still, after looking I see that I do this far less often than I use flash or existing sources like streetlights (did a whole book on them) or lights from buildings etc.

 

[Craig Stocks]

As with most things photographic I find the particular tool is less important than how you use it. Most lighting tools such as flashlights, strobes or light bars/panels are only useful for nearby features. Otherwise the light falloff is too problematic. The other problem with distant objects is getting your light away from the camera to a pleasing angle. If you're trying to light up something a quarter mile away you need to move a quarter mile from your camera to get 45 degree lighting.

Personally I tend to use:

LED flashlight. My favorite is one from LED Lensers (which is owned by Leatherman). In general I would choose the flashlight when I need a strong narrow beam that reaches out to a distance without contaminating the foreground.



LED light wand - This one from Yongnuo works well and is cheap. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1299341-REG/yongnuo_yn360_handheld_led_video_light.html In general I'd choose the light wand when I need a large light source to create highlights on a foreground object or to cover a large area with soft light.





Headlights from passing cars





The moon - photograph the foreground while the moon is up and the sky when the moon is down. An obvious advantage of the moon is that it can cover distant features like mountain ranges. It is more difficult to control ;-)



The sun - Foreground photographed in daytime or a sunset, the sky in the dark.



Most of the time you'll need to photograph the foreground in separate frames and blend in Photoshop.

 

[dave.gt]

Wow!!! And wow!!

Craig, that is awesome advice. Very much appreciated! When I get home, I will go over it again and we shall talk. This is what makes photography exciting!:grin:

Thanks so much!:thumbs:

 

[dave.gt]

Craig,

Last night, I spent hours pouring over your detailed posts and links. I had no idea there was that much information, or that many options to lighting, but I should really have expected that, I suppose! Your footsteps are very much appreciated as I follow them.

The lighting options are many, so this will take awhile. My first "away from the backyard" location appears to be on our neighborhood golf course for a Milky Way session at the lake using two different greens that are on the edge of the water. That will keep me busy starting soon. In May, we are planning on a long family weekend on the Gulf with, hopefully clear weather for a beach session or two. Two of our grandkids will be there and are quite interested in NASA and astronomy, so I hope to have them shoot their own images (with a lot of help), to frame and hang on their wall at home.

There is a steep curve ahead in a short period of time!

I will write down my thoughts and questions today. The headlamps are amazing, so I will call them about some custom changes, too.

Who knew lighting would be so... enlightening?:thumbup:

 

[GrahamWelland]

I suspect that you were originally talking about lights like the Westcott ICE light. I have that and have used it in the past but after spent more time in the field I prefer to use various smaller LED lights instead as they allow for more precise light painting. I’d rather add light more subtly incrementally than use larger lights,

something else to consider is the temperature of the lights - blue leds work well for things like green trees etc but often a warmer light works better overall (or indeed a mix)

 

[dave.gt]

I do a lot of nighttime work, both with flash and with continuous lighting. I often forget which I used after a while, but I have a few suggestions that I have found very helpful.
I highly recommend Lupine Light Systems for their headlamps and flashlights. They are expensive, but unlike any other light I have used. They are made for biking and things like that, but they function extremely well for any night work. I have two lamps -- the Piko which is a small headlamp (still very powerful) and a Betty headlamp, which is incredibly powerful. I spoke to the company, and when they found out I was a photographer, they offered to change the LED's in the Betty to 5000K LED's, instead of 6500 or so, and in doing so they have noticeably better color reproduction. They also put a red LED in the center, instead of the typical white LED. This allows me to have a low intensity light that is easier on the eyes while I am working with the camera, and then still have the powerful beam when needed. I think these changes might have been free, but if they charged me, it was only a nominal fee. The lights are a system, and the batteries are interchangeable and you can buy different harnesses and mounts, as well as a USB adapter to charge your devices or to charge the batteries from USB. The accessories are pretty reasonably priced, and everything is very well made. It seems as though it is mostly made in Germany. They do not have a distributor in Iceland, so I bought directly from the company, and the service was great. They will update old models to new spec for a reasonable fee and so on. The other feature which I have found very useful is that you can get the lamps with bluetooth and app triggering. This can be very useful if you have multiple lights, or if you want to control the time the light is on without actually being next to it and so on.

If you are interested in flash, I have had great luck with the Profoto A1 and B1 flashes. Both have powerful and useful modeling lamps that can be used for continuous lighting as well. Obviously, these are not color critical solutions, though they both have a rather warm and pleasing lighting.

My night photography is rather different than those linked above, but I can post a few shots made by using continuous lighting to fill in the light...still, after looking I see that I do this far less often than I use flash or existing sources like streetlights (did a whole book on them) or lights from buildings etc.

Craig,

These are impressive lights! I will be contacting them to discuss a few things..,
Cool!!!

 

[Stuart Richardson]

The company and the product are among the best I have dealt with...they are fantastic in use, and the company itself is a model in terms of offering spares, upgrades and accessories at a reasonable price, even though the main product is expensive. This is opposed to Leica which charge 125 dollars (I think it might have even been 200 at one point) for a replacement neoprene strap for the Leica S which could not cost more than 10 euros to make. This company will sell you a 700 euro headlamp but at least sell you the accessories for a reasonable price.

 

[dave.gt]

Craig,

These are impressive lights! I will be contacting them to discuss a few things..,
Cool!!!

Yikes!!! I hate iPhones!:facesmack: My apologies. Just realized I had your name wrong, Stuart... sometimes I am distracted by the responsibilities around here, return to post on the forum and the tiny screen doesn't give me a good reference point sometimes. I must pay more attention! Typos are always a problem, too.

Stuart, I have used the B1/B2 lights courtesy of rentals from CI and I was quite impressed. With a meeting today at the golf course to discuss some nighttime shoots in the greens, I will keep the B1and B2 in mind. Lots of tech issues to sort through. This is getting to be fun!:grin:

 

[dave.gt]

And those headlamps... really cool!

Btw, I would love to see your book on street lamps!:thumbs:

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Thanks Dave. I figured you were addressing Craig...he posted the lovely photos after mine and had a lot of great advice!

Thanks for the kind words though...both the headlamps and the Profoto stuff are great. If you are interested in a streetlight book, let me know...I have not gotten around to updating the price, but I have a number of them and would be happy to get you one at a good discount now that it has been out awhile. Alternatively, you are welcome to have a look on my website. They were actually published by the Guardian last year, which is something I was quite proud of. Unfortunately they did not link to the book! :facesmack:

 

[Smoothjazz]

The Lupine headlamps and flashlights look great, but wow are they expensive! The Lenser looks to be a very strong hand-held flashlight in the $200 dollar range. My specific question is what light to use if you are just trying to fill in some shadows in a daytime landscape scene at fairly close range? The most common issue I encounter is dark shaded areas that need some light- for example in a wooded forest area.

 

[Craig Stocks]

The Lupine headlamps and flashlights look great, but wow are they expensive! The Lenser looks to be a very strong hand-held flashlight in the $200 dollar range. My specific question is what light to use if you are just trying to fill in some shadows in a daytime landscape scene at fairly close range? The most common issue I encounter is dark shaded areas that need some light- for example in a wooded forest area.

It's hard to say without seeing the specific scene but my guess is that you'll be better off using exposure blending or some other form of HDR exposure management rather than a fill light.

If you really want to use a fill light a flash will probably work better than a flashlight or other continuous light primarily for more brightness. A flashlight that seems bright at night just isn't bright enough to be very useful during the daytime. For instance, LED Lenser can be focused as a spot or spread to a wide angle. Focused as a spot you get a bright spot about 2 feet across at 15 feet and an exposure of about 1 second at f/8 @ ISO 50. With a spread beam you get about 15 seconds at f/8 @ ISO 50.

Also keep in mind the inverse square behavior of light. Any object a little closer will get a lot more light and objects farther away will get a lot less. It think it might be very difficult to deliver a constant amount of fill to shadows in a scene where the distance varies quite a bit.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I agree if you are looking for daytime fill, a flash is really the best choice. They can be a bit intimidating to learn, but once you get the hang of them, they are really amazing. Of course everything is easier with digital too...you can see what you are doing right away.

 

[Digitalcameraman]

Nice examples Craig. Are these with your Phase One system? Was curious what ISO you tend to find is the trade off? Last questions is on that LED light do you know the kelvin temps? Many of the ones I have tried tend to be 9-10K degree which is very blue. Tungsten is a nice color temp but can be too yellow in long exposure.

In advance thanks for your input and sharing.

As with most things photographic I find the particular tool is less important than how you use it. Most lighting tools such as flashlights, strobes or light bars/panels are only useful for nearby features. Otherwise the light falloff is too problematic. The other problem with distant objects is getting your light away from the camera to a pleasing angle. If you're trying to light up something a quarter mile away you need to move a quarter mile from your camera to get 45 degree lighting.

Personally I tend to use:

LED flashlight. My favorite is one from LED Lensers (which is owned by Leatherman). In general I would choose the flashlight when I need a strong narrow beam that reaches out to a distance without contaminating the foreground.

View attachment 139124

LED light wand - This one from Yongnuo works well and is cheap. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1299341-REG/yongnuo_yn360_handheld_led_video_light.html In general I'd choose the light wand when I need a large light source to create highlights on a foreground object or to cover a large area with soft light.

View attachment 139125

View attachment 139129

Headlights from passing cars

View attachment 139130

View attachment 139126

The moon - photograph the foreground while the moon is up and the sky when the moon is down. An obvious advantage of the moon is that it can cover distant features like mountain ranges. It is more difficult to control ;-)

View attachment 139127

The sun - Foreground photographed in daytime or a sunset, the sky in the dark.

View attachment 139128

Most of the time you'll need to photograph the foreground in separate frames and blend in Photoshop.

 

[Craig Stocks]

Nice examples Craig. Are these with your Phase One system? Was curious what ISO you tend to find is the trade off? Last questions is on that LED light do you know the kelvin temps? Many of the ones I have tried tend to be 9-10K degree which is very blue. Tungsten is a nice color temp but can be too yellow in long exposure.

In advance thanks for your input and sharing.

Yes, mostly taken with Phase One XF IQ3100 but the one from Zion was with the IQ4150. I tend to use ISO 1600 most of the time and adjust the shutter speed to suit, generally 30 sec to 2 minutes. I also almost always stack frames for noise reduction and use a star tracking mount for the sky.

The LED Lenser is close to daylight but a little toward yellow/green.