Monday, May 3, 2021

Dancing Light Paintings

 From My Modern Met:

Light is beautiful yet ephemeral. And photography, at its core, is about light; the practice takes its name from the Greek words phos meaning “light,” and graphê, meaning “drawing.” Brazilian photographer Vitor Schietti has fully embraced the nature of light in his work. In 2015, he began a series entitled Impermanent Sculptures that incorporates a technique known as light painting to surround trees and other natural objects with fiery streaks of illumination. These glowing landscapes evoke the magic of fairy trails, but they are the result of a delicate photographic process.

To create his light paintings, Schietti must perfectly time his exposures. After choosing a location, the photographer uses fireworks to produce streaks of light that are captured with a slow shutter speed. Sometimes a single shot is all he needs to cover a tree in energetic illumination. However, he also composites images together using Photoshop for maximum effect. According to Schietti, capturing an image is a precise dance of timing. “I use a neutral density filter to find the perfect balance between the brightness of the sparkles and the natural light by twilight, so it's a fine and limited balance, only a few minutes each day.” (Read more.)
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