MAKE Flickr photo pool member Sebastian writes –
All the pictures were taken with a regular digital camera set to an exposure time of 0.5 to 2 seconds. The lines you see were created by LED lights attached to moving objects.
You can use any small light source to make the trace of a moving object visible (bicycle light, flash light, key light). Just attach the light to the object, and make sure the room is completely dark. Then take a long exposure picture of the moving light using your Digi Cam.
It’s even more fun to go further and analyze the speed of the object! To do that, use a fast blinking LED light (such as the Inova pulsed LEDs you can buy at Target Stores for $7). The distance between the dots is a measure of speed.
4 thoughts on “Light traces”
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You may also like this Flickr group, which has some good examples of colored flash, laser, EL-wire, flashlight, and other light painting techniques.
http://flickr.com/groups/lightpainted/
There is also the somewhat related “Camera Tossing”, which is relatively ancient in Flickr-time:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/cameratoss/pool/
Thanks for blogging about my Light Traces!
Here is another great link with instructions and some really cool light traces:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/pie/ideas.html#page