SHOOTING STEPS
1 ATTACH YOUR STRING Tie a small pen torch to a length of string, then attach the other end to a light fitting on the ceiling in a room in your house so you can suspend the torch above ground. The length of the string isn’t crucial, but start with approx 1m and see how you get on.
2 SORT THE TORCH As we’re using a manual-focus lens we have to adjust the aperture on the lens itself. I went with f4 for the best balance of depth of field versus lens blur. I’m using the Sweet 50 Lensbaby lens and will position it at the angle you see in the image.
3 CAMERA SETUP Mount your camera on a tripod approximately 1m beneath the torch. Set the shutter speed to Bulb (b) so you can leave the shutter open for as long as necessary, stop the lens down to an aperture of f11 or f16 so you have depth of field, and attach a remote release.
4 SPIN THE TORCH Pull back the torch approx 50cm from its static position and set it swinging in a circular motion. Peer through the camera’s viewfinder and when the swing of the torch is small enough to appear in the viewfinder, lock the shutter open on Bulb for around 20 seconds to record the light trails.
5 ADD A COLOUR After about 20 seconds, place a piece of card over the lens, grab the torch and turn it off, place a coloured filter on the lens, cover it with the card again, turn the torch back on, swing it in a different motion then remove the card so more light trails record with a different colour.
6 REPEAT AFTER ME You can repeat the previous step as many times as you like using different coloured filters – red, green, blue, orange, whatever you fancy.
The more light trails you record, the more complex the images become. It’s actually quite addictive because no two shots are ever the same – before you know it, the batteries will be flat!