Painting with Light, the Police Forensic’s way
I mentioned last week that I was going out at night to “Paint with Light”. This is essentially photography in the dark using only a flash/torch and loooooong exposures, to bathe large areas in even light.
I went out with a couple of gurus in this genre, one the head of forensics photography and the other a prof with a penchant for slide film captures. (His Nikon from yesteryear weighed the same as a bowling ball!)
Setting up in the dark (Lit from my camera flash).
How the Police record an crime/accident scene at night is the technique we employed here. Firstly, you mark out the area you wish to photograph. In our case it was around 100m deep, and about 40m across. You need to have your camera on a sturdy tripod and set on “BULB”, with a remote shutter release attached. A small sheet of black cardboard is also required.
Two or more people are needed for this exercise, and even then, a large accident scene may take well over 2 hours to record thoroughly, I was told.
When ready, release the shutter and lock in the open position. As the setting is BULB it will stay open indefinately. The person operating the hand held flash will let off the first burst of light. Quickly place the black card in front of the lens to prevent further image burn. The Flash person will then walk down the left or right hand side of the area you wish to photograph for about 20m. They’ll yell out “Ready?” You yell “Yup!”, take away the black card, wait for the Flash and then pop the card back over the lens again. Repeat this 5 times down either side, being careful not to be in the field of view if you are the Flash person.
The pitch black pathway was transformed into the scene below with an exposure time of about 6 mins.
That blue light on the right is the Flash person being caught in the field of view.
The Full Moon was rising over the lake now, so we used plain old long expsures (around 30 secs) to capture the following images:
With the Moon’s reflection…
…and without.
And the gorgeous Golden Girl herself. With this one you need a really fast shutter speed (this was around 1/1600 if I remember), as the the moon is such a bright light source.
So go out and play with your camera at night - great fun!
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a belated happy new year to you, my friend! e.
Thats interesting stuff. Love the moon and the light on the pond. When they make a SLR small enough to fit in my jacket pocket then I will try fancy photography.
Thank you for the kind comments on my blog.
Have fun tomorrow at the opening.
Yesterday at the school where I work, they had a visiting book illustrater, Narelle Oliver. She took a class of top level artists in the school and gave them lessons. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch her as I was teaching my lot, but the kid’s results were very good.
Very cool. I’ll let my husband see this post. He was trying to photograph the moon the other night. That must have been really interesting going out with the Police.
Your life is always interesting……BUT how is the humidity?
Hi Cindy,
Great post as usual…..I enjoy the knowledge…thank you
Take care with the “troppo” season and do not howl at the moon.
Kind regards,
Lizzie B.
Hi guys,
Yes it was really cool to get to experience how events are recodred legally. There is also the whole “Chain of Evidence” thing that they have to comply with as well.
Kim, you know what, I think I’m acclimatising. I no longer have to shower every hour.
Sooooon I’ll be finished with Uni, but until then I am still chasing my tail. I have so many photos and stories, but not enough time to get them down here - very frustrating.
Not long now….
Cheers
Cindy