Light Painting The Miracle Glass Company

Light painting consists in illuminating the scene with a small LED light during a long camera exposure. Typically, I combine a number of pictures in Photoshop as it is usually not practical to light the whole scene in one go.

Because of the long camera exposures required, the subject one photographs must stand still. There lies a major challenge in light painting people. You and I can stand still, but only up to a point. We aren’t rocks or sofas. When light painting people, there is always some slight motion from shot to shot. How one lights the subject and good Photoshop skills are required to produce sharp light paintings of people.

Light painting of Miracle Glass Company in an abandoned location
I don’t really know what the used piece of equipment in the foreground is, but when I saw the location, I knew I would use its lines to direct the eye of the viewer to the band.

I started doing light paintings with inanimate objects. I then tried to photograph one person. The next step in that evolution was obviously light painting multiple people.

The atmospheric images this technique produces appeal to musicians and artists in general. So I enlisted the help of Edinburgh rock band “The Miracle Glass Company”. They describe themselves as follows:

“From supernaturally beautiful songs to seismic mind bending jams, Miracle Glass Company represent all that’s best about cosmic rock n’ roll.”

Light painting of Edinburgh rock band Miracle Glass Company in an abandoned location
We tried a number of different poses for the band, and a few different compositions.

A great benefit of working with that band is that they happen to rehearse in an abandoned church, that is apparently serving as some sort of carpentry atelier. Derelict locations full of “stuff” are absolutely wonderful for light painting.

Light painting of Edinburgh rock band Miracle Glass Company in an abandoned location.
The entrance to the location lent itself nicely to a vertical composition.
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