Light Painting a Singer and a Staircase

Katie is singer who agreed to collaborate on my personal light painting project. It was late in the year, cold and wet outside, so she proposed we shot at her friend’s flat. The main (and I’m afraid to say the only) attraction was the staircase leading to the upper bedroom.

It took some time to find a suitable camera angle. I needed to get a proper composition with the staircase. I also had to remove any distracting elements in the background from the frame. After a few trial shots, I realised I absolutely loved the shadows created by the staircase. This is something I’ll definitely remember for future light paintings.

Light painting of singer Katie on a staircase looking at the camera — With light painting, one an create a moody image with a rather bland scene.

Light painting of singer Katie sitting on a staircase and looking at the camera — We couldn’t try too many different poses given the constraints on the composition imposed by the location.

A couple of light painting runs and we were done. A rather quick photoshoot. But with light painting, most of the work is done in postproduction, editing and blending all the shots together. It can take anywhere between two and five hours (for complex scenes).