You're Creating Mind-Blowing Light Painting Photos in 2025

All right, you're good to go. Hello there, fellow photographers and all creatives. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Erin Donoghue, a photographer and content creator based in New York City. Today, we're getting into light painting photography, and I'm going to go over a couple of mistakes that I wish I had known about sooner when creating these types of images. You'll want to stick around till the end. The last tip never occurred to me until recently. I didn't come up with it. I learned it from watching other photographers and their process, but it's been such a game changer and makes all the difference. Before we get into it, if you haven't already, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on exciting photography tips and tricks. Now, let's break down what light painting photography actually is. My first encounter with light painting was back in 2019 on a trip to Abisko in the Lapland region of northern Sweden in pursuit of the northern lights. If you've never heard of Abisko, I'll let you in on a little secret. This is actually the best location with the highest chance of seeing the northern light due to its geographical area. Obviously, dark skies are necessary to see the northern lights themselves, but what that also meant was there was minimal ambient light to illuminate the foreground. It was in this setting that I learned you can introduce an external light source and literally paint over the foreground. If you think about it, what is your other option? It would be the shutter would have to be open for an exorbitant amount of time in order for the ground to match the sky. Ain't nobody got time for that. Light painting involves using an off-camera light source like a flashlight, a specialized tool, or even your smartphone's flash to create streaks of light while your camera shutter is open. It's a long exposure technique that can be used both indoors and outdoors, offering endless creative possibilities. Since that trip to Abisko, I've experimented with light painting in numerous ways, and some of my most viral content is on this very subject. I've amassed millions of views on social media, especially when I doubled down on making self-portraits with fiber optics. From that, I actually made a couple of light painting videos for my partnership with Sony. I'm going to show you how to light paint with city lights. Let's go. If you see someone doing funny movements like this in public, there's a reason. Grab your tripod. It'll be your best friend. Light painting is a long exposure. Start at five seconds, but adjust to your environment. Sony's Alpha 7 III low-light capabilities are perfect for this. Turn off long exposure noise reduction to save yourself time. Experiment, practice, and see what you get. Have fun. All right, now that you're intrigued, let's talk about what gear you need to get started with light painting photography and what mistakes you should avoid. First and foremost, you'll need a mirrorless or DSLR camera with manual settings. This gives you complete control over your shot. You can do this with your phone, but it's significantly harder. Speaking of controlling the shot, a tripod is an absolute must. Your shutter will be open for an extended period, so even the slightest shake can blur your image. To prevent any camera shake when triggering the shutter, there are a few options. You can use a shutter release remote or your camera's timer. Personally, I prefer the timer or using the in-camera interval function. If you don't have anyone who can help you, the in-camera interval function is a big help. Or use your phone like a remote control. Cameras nowadays have apps that allow your phone to turn into a remote so you can see what your camera sees. I know Canon has this function, Sony has the Imaging Edge app, and I'm not sure about the other manufacturers, but I'm sure they do. This is how I've made tons of self-portrait light painting shots by myself. Yes, it is way easier to have a second hand to help, but if there's a will, there's a way. As for light painting tools itself, there are plenty of options. For lighting specifically, it really doesn't matter as long as there's an external light source. I've used all these different lights at one point or another. I have a comprehensive camera gear video that goes in-depth about what accessories I use. Now, there are companies that specialize in light painting tools. I personally got all mine from light painting brushes, but you can start with something as basic as your phone's flash. All you need is your imagination. So, let's talk about the camera settings. To capture the shots, you'll want to be in full control, so shooting in manual mode is essential since shutter speed can go up to 30 seconds sometimes, or even longer with bulb. Be sure to set your files to RAW for maximum post-processing flexibility. With low-light photos, you need that flexibility. Giving specific camera settings doesn't really make sense because the light in my environment will be different from yours. Variables like ambient light, distance, and focal length all play a role in determining your exposure settings. In light painting specifically, different settings also yield completely different results. However, here is a general starting point. If you're indoors, begin with a minimum shutter speed of like one second. Outdoors, tinker from 5 to 10 seconds to start. Aperture is all over the place, honestly. I've gotten great shots at f8, f4, and even f2.8. Ideally, keep your ISO as low as possible, around 100, but you can increase higher if needed. Lastly, but technically before you start experimenting, switch to manual focus. The last thing you want is your camera struggling to focus on the subject in autofocus. If you're using a Sony camera like me, the focus peaking function can be your best friend. I usually keep it in color red. While keeping all this in mind, it brings me to mistake number two. Not wearing black and standing too long in one position, therefore getting picked up in the scene. This applies to whoever is physically doing the light painting. If there's a person who's a subject, they can wear whatever color they want. Lastly, if you made it this far in this video, this is the mistake I kept making until recently, and it mainly applies if you're photographing a person in the scene. It's not a hard and fast rule though. Using a hot shoe flash is such a game changer. It doesn't need to be set up to anything, it just needs to be on the lowest setting at 1 over 128 and press the flash button to set it off. If you don't already know, the light source can only go over a person once, otherwise the blur will show. Unless you can somehow stand ridiculously still without breathing for 30 seconds or more. The blast from the hot shoe flash is quick, widespread, and crisp. And there you have it, a brief introduction to light painting photography, the gear you'll need, and some starting camera settings to get those captivating shots. There are so many ways to experiment with this, so unleash your inner artist and have fun. If you found this video helpful, don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe for more photography tips and tricks. Thanks for joining me today, practice that light painting, and don't be afraid to look silly in public. See you in my next video.