Students love to explore photography through light painting (also called light drawing or light graffiti), a technique of moving a light source while taking a long-exposure photograph. Recently, my advanced photography students worked in teams to create light painting portraits. I wanted them to learn light painting techniques and how to illuminate a subject using a long exposure.
Photography is a creative and technical art, and people gravitate to it because it’s a visual way to see the world. The word photography literally means “drawing with light.”
Students love to explore photography through light painting (also called light drawing or light graffiti), a technique of moving a light source while taking a long-exposure photograph. Recently, my advanced photography students worked in teams to create light painting portraits. I wanted them to learn light painting techniques and how to illuminate a subject using a long exposure.
Practical Considerations
We used the camera exposure setting f/22 (the size of the aperture or hole in the lens), 100 ISO (the camera’s sensitivity to light), and a shutter speed of ten seconds, creating a long exposure. The exposure couldnʼt be any longer because we couldnʼt make the classroom dark enough due to the height of the windows, but ten seconds was plenty of time to create captivating and eye-catching images. Students used Canon high-end cameras to capture the shots, and a tripod to keep the camera still to avoid blurry images.
Working Collaboratively
Students worked in teams of three and changed roles to make sure they each got to experience all parts of the process: One student started as the subject; another was the light painter behind or in front of the subject; and another held an external Canon flash off to the side, which they manually popped once or twice during the exposure.
Students used a few different light sources to do the “painting.” The Pixel Stick was a real game changer as it produced results that were immediately aesthetically pleasing with waves and circles of color. Students also used a light wand with multiple changing colors, finger lights, and Christmas lights.
Reflections
As I watched students edit their work, I was filled with pride and passion for what I do as a photography teacher. I have been teaching photography for almost twenty years, and I learn new things each year. I love working with students as we discover and explore the medium.
Students will carry these photography skills with them when they decide on a career and enter the job market. I love CTE, or Career Technical Education, because our courses help guide students into careers and gain marketable twenty-first century skills.
I am the CTE department chair, overseeing a creative team of professionals who teach Television Production, Digital Audio Recording, Drama, Theater and Stagecraft, Dance, and Social Media Marketing. Students at Jurupa Hills High School enjoy being in our elective classes. They bond with their teachers and produce quality portfolio work.
Check out our Jurupa Hills High School photography blog below! The main site is filled with gorgeous student work and links to individual student blogs.
Rebecca Cauchon Sutphen is a digital photography teacher and CTE department chair at Jurupa Hills High School in Fontana, California. CaucRG@FUSD.net
National Standard
Connecting: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experience to make art.
Resources
Photo Class Blog
Pixel Stick
Art teachers share lessons that focus on media arts, digital processes, and new technologies. Students design and develop meaningful side-scrolling video games, learn light painting techniques to capture long-exposure photographs, turn 2D drawings into 3D-printed models, create a digital floral folk-art piece inspired by their heritage, and more.
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