Creating images from lights

KOCHI: Ever heard of a form of photographic technique called the light painting? Ever tried to capture the beauty of shining lights and imagined it on a big canvas? Light painting introduces one to a world of wonder, with shining lights forming surreal images, and city students can get a chance to see the same. 
Goethe Zentrum in the capital will introduce the concept as the Indo-German cultural exchange centre is organising a light painting workshop for its students. A german artist, Raphael Canio, will lead the session which will be held today from 2 pm on the premises. The artist cum photographer is in the city as part of a project.

The artist will be briefing around 20 students on the concept of the unique photography technique during the three-hour-long session. He had also conducted a similar class at the Sarvodaya school in the city as part of the project. Syed Ibrahim, director of Goethe Zentrum says, “Such a workshop has not been held here before. The technique is so unique that it is not easy to capture and see it with the naked eye, since it is a process which is so fast.”

Light painting, or light drawing, is an artistic work done by moving a hand-held light source while taking a long exposure photograph, either to illuminate a subject or to shine a point of light directly at the camera, or by moving the camera itself during exposure. The technique is used for both scientific and artistic purposes, as well as in commercial photography. Light painting has long inspired photographers with the technique capturing a moving light source whilst taking a long exposure photograph which is difficult to perfect but can produce exciting results. 

A concept which originated as early as 1889 when Etienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny traced human motion through the first known light painting ‘Pathological Walk From in Front’.
The unique photographic technique has now gained much popularity, partly due to the increasing availability of dSLR cameras, advances in portable light sources such as LEDs, and also in part due to the rise of media sharing websites by which practitioners can exchange images and ideas.