Light Painting Photography with Skateboards & Sparklers

Lighting painting certainly seems to be the trend lately, and photographer Dave Lehl couldn’t resist from trying it out himself. But instead of waving flashlights and glowsticks around, Lehl decided to grab a bunch of sparklers, tape them to some skateboards, and watch his friends do their crazy tricks as he photographs the whole thing:

Lehl’s light painting photos are actually a composite of a slow shutter speed shot with just the sparklers and another one using strobes to light the subject. He chooses to use rim lighting to create a more dramatic style to his images. Besides the light painting photos, Lehl has also experimented with smoke bombs.

Using a strobe to shine through the smoke, Lehl is able to bring out the color and patterns it makes. He shoots with a Canon 1D Mark III and uses a Pocket Wizard Mini with hypersync so that he can use his strobes with a shutter speed around 1/800th.

skating with sparks

Long exposure composite taken with sparkler attached to skateboard.

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