Light Painting An Old Pair Of Jeans

There are a number of photographers I really look up to. Freeman Patterson is one of them. I’m fortunate to own a number of his books, two of them signed by Freeman. I was reading “Photographing the world around you”  when I came across a paragraph explaining how Freeman was attracted to photograph a pile of jeans.

Freeman’s description of the elements of design he saw in that pile of denims made me realise it could be fun to try to do some light paintings of an old pair of jeans of mine. Luckily these days night falls rather early, so I didn’t have to wait too long to get working on that project, as light painting must be done in the dark.

Light painting a close-up of an old pair of jeans
Many of the elements of design are present in the above photo. Lines, shapes (the buttons and inner pocket), textures and colour.
Light painting a close-up of an old pair of jeans
I was tempted to straighten some of the lines in this composition, but realised the picture works better that way.
Light painting a close-up of an old pair of jeans
The next two pictures illustrate the contrast between vertical/horizontal lines and diagonal ones. I first started with this rather static composition
Light painting a close-up of an old pair of jeans
I then tilted the jeans to create diagonal lines for a more dynamic composition
Light painting a close-up of an old pair of jeans
This was my final composition as I called it a day. I may very well revisit this subject in the future.

I lit these pictures with a StreamLight Stylus LED pen light. It works very well for light painting small objects.

 

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