Painting skills

Prepare the light 1

Unless your light source is waterproof, you’ll need to prepare it by placing in a watertight bag. We chose to use a battery-powered disco light, you can buy these for a few pounds on Amazon or similar sites. We placed the light inside two clear plastic bags, tied tightly to a piece of string so that we could swing the light around and create colourful curved patterns.

Set an interval timer 2

If you’re shooting this solo then you won’t want to be going back and forth to the camera. It’s better to set the camera firing at intervals so that you can continue shooting for a few minutes while you produce the light painting. Use the interval timer to shoot continuously as you paint.

Keep moving 5

Moving from side to side can help to make you invisible in the shot. Keep in mind too that if you get your body between the torch and the camera then there will be abrupt gaps in the painting, as shown in the example here. Shoot an empty frame of the scene so you can use it as a base for the effect later.

Exposure settings 3

An exposure length of two or three seconds is ideal for your light painting. We set our camera to manual mode with ISO100, aperture f/16 and shutter speed 3 secs. Take a test shot and tweak the ISO, if necessary. The narrow aperture helps to ensure plenty of depth of field.

Make a splash 6

Splashing the torch into the water will create attractive sprays and splashes of colour that help to add to the vibrant effect. If you have a shape in mind – like our water lily shape here – then try to mimic the outline of it with your light painting ‘strokes’. And don't forget… practice makes perfect.

Capture fading light 4

The scene will be more atmospheric if you can capture the fading daylight or perhaps the last colours of a vibrant sunset. So try to time it so that the last glimmers of twilight play a part. Here we waited 20 minutes after sunset, but if it’s a clear sky you may want to try later.