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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2 responses to “Light Painting Photography with Skateboards & Sparklers”

  1. Karen says:

    Out of all the video’s you’ve ever placed on here, the concept is good however what a complete tosser that guy is, what the hell was in that drink? Banging two cats together for a laugh hardly had me smiling the guy is a self absorbed hippie he would had got more respect if he just acted normal and not like a complete wank.

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