How did I illuminate this amazing Cadillac and garage in a ghost town while the camera shutter was open in this long exposure photo? Glad you asked.
I will describe how I used light painting to illuminate and add interest to a photo taken near a full moon at night. Hopefully, this gives you a few ideas for approaches.
I use a handheld LED light. That’s right. No stands, no stationary lights.
My handheld ProtoMachines LED2, which I use for light painting while the camera’s shutter is open during long exposure photos!
Think of the flashlight as a “brush,” only we are “brushing on” light instead of paint. We set up a camera on a tripod. Using an intervalometer or a remote shutter release, we open the camera’s shutter for a couple of minutes. Then we light paint the scene. We decide what to illuminate and what to keep in shadow, similar to what a film director might do. The light is cumulative. And if I don’t stand still for too long in front of the camera, I am invisible to the camera! You and I … we both have this magic power of invisibility!
Four steps to light painting the Cadillac
Step one: Illuminating the car from the left
This was actually the most difficult angle. Why? Because I am using a fisheye lens. It’s very easy to mistakenly shine the handheld light into the camera lens. This would result in a spot. To try to avoid this, I used a short snoot over the flashlight. At other times, we can use a piece of cardboard as Mike Cooper does, or we can block the light from the lens with our body.
I caressed the light from the left side at an angle. This angle allowed me to pick up that beautiful glow on its right side. I found this appealing and went with it. I also wanted the right side of the garage to be in shadow, so this helped continue that.
Step two: Illuminating the car from the right
For my first attempt at light painting the Cadillac, I actually didn’t light paint the car from camera right. However, I found that there was too much of the car in shadow for my liking. After all, the camera is predominantly on that side! It felt too dark even though technically it looked good.
For the second and final attempt, I shined the light from camera right. I used a sharp angle to once again pick up some detail. However, I kept the illumination darker than what I did from camera right. I did use my hand to block some of the light from hitting the white gas pump. I didn’t want that to get “blown out” by the light or detract from the car’s magnificent grille.
Step three: Let’s give the eyes some sparkle!
It’s so much fun to make it look like the headlights are on! I was a little more subtle about this than I sometimes get. These are almost more sparkly than looking like they are full-on headlights. I used the same snoot that I had used for camera left. This enables me to direct the light very carefully at the headlights instead of having light spill all over. A quick second burst of light for each headlight was and I was finished!
Step four: Let there be red!
The ceiling of the wooden garage would ordinarily be completely black. Given that I was pointing my fisheye upward and the ceiling was an enormous part of the overall photo, having that be completely in shadow seemed wrong. Besides, I wanted context.
Switching my light, a ProtoMachines LED2, to red, I walked over to the opening on the side of the garage. From several different angles, I light-painted the ceiling. Choosing a red color would create additional separation from the greenish-hued Cadillac. Also, it would add an odd eeriness to the photo and make it stand out more.
And really, I do love strange-looking night photos! A night photo already looks somewhat unusual. A night photo with a fisheye, even more so. And one with a strangely-glowing red ceiling? So good and weird!
About that Cadillac grille
I get asked what kind of car this is all the time. Part of the reason is this unusual grille. This is a 1940s Cadillac Fleetwood. However, it has a 1950s Buick bumper attached.
Night photography workshop at Nelson Ghost Town
Nelson ghost town workshop, May 4 — 6, 2023. Photo by Ken Lee.
Tim Little and I are having a night photography workshop for three nights at this strange and unusual ghost town in Nevada. It’s privately owned, so you will have amazing access to a very wide variety of cars, trucks, buses, weird one-of-a-kind vehicles, an amazing barn, a giant neon motel sign, a church, abandoned pianos, gas pumps, and so much more. And then there are two airplanes, one of which is stuck nose down in the ground, and the other a small Navy trainer! The instruction will be fun, informative, fascinating, friendly, and accessible. Click here for more information!
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
You can create bold vivid rainbow lighting when light painting at night. This works especially well with plain surfaces such as cinder block. Here’s how you can create rainbow light painting in three easy steps.
Rainbows of the Crossbar Hilton. This abandoned jail in a desert ghost town had some plain surfaces. I decided to punch up the interior a little by creating a rainbow effect inside each room.
Adding color interest to a plain building
Looking at the remains of the abandoned two-cell jail, I saw that it was a rather plain gray surface all the way around. Light painting is endlessly creative and gives you the opportunity to add extra color if you wish. Here, I decided to create a rainbow color rather than a single color for one of the photos.
The light painting device that I use, the ProtoMachines LED2, produces any light within the RGB spectrum. I realize that many people do not have one of these. However, there are other lights that do this, including LED panels such as the Luxli Viola.
Walking inside the left cell of the jail, I hid behind the door so the camera lens wouldn’t pick up me or any direct light from my ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device. I held the light closely to the wall. Starting from the top, I slowly illuminated the wall while simultaneously altering the color control so that it would gradually shift by the time I got to the bottom of the wall.
Step three: Inside the right cell
I walked to the cell on the right and did the same as above.
Other thoughts
Most of the time, I tell people that they can replicate the sort of lighting I do with a decent LED flashlight as a Streamlight or Coast flashlight and some gels from a Roscolux Swatchbook sample booklet. While it might be technically possible if you continually swap out gels and do some blending of colored lights, it would be considerably more challenging. Also, it would be even more challenging to replicate the same colors on both cells as I have done here.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
Light painting is illuminating a subject at night with light. This can be disruptive to others. Or to wildlife. And it’s compounded if it is with a crowd of people, such as what was happening at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.
Mojave National Preserve, CA, part of the National Park System.
While I have joked about this while discussing photographs of people pointing their flashlights up at the Milky Way, this is actually a real issue borne out of some people’s frustration.
Where can I use artificial lighting in the National Park system?
The National Park Service manages 423 individual units. These 423 also include Monuments, Preserves, Reserves, Lakeshores, Rivers, Parkways, Historical Parks, Battlefields, Forests, and other designations. In 417 of these places, you may use artificial lighting, including light painting.
Joshua Tree National Park, CA.
Where is artificial lighting banned?
This has changed in the past couple of years. However, to the best of my knowledge, the use of artificial light sources to illuminate landscapes, rock formations, or other park features is banned in Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Capitol Reef and Grand Teton National Parks. This of course includes “light painting”.
However, it also includes ultra-dim static lighting as well. This ultra-dim lighting is typically as bright as the stars and is virtually imperceptible to people.
Controversy
Arches National Park, Utah.
The ruling from these six units has been controversial among night photographers. Some feel that using very dim lighting from static panels does not disturb anyone, to the point where they are often not discernible except to the very sensitive sensors of a camera set to photograph long exposures at high ISOs.
Joshua Tree National Park, CA
Some photographers point out that it is OK to have cars racing through the parks at night. And in the case of Grand Teton, there’s also a highway, international airport, and private properties within its boundaries, all of which create more light than photographers ever would.
There are multiple sides to this issue. And people from these various sides often make strong points.
Regardless, most night photographers acknowledge that light painting can be disruptive to wildlife and people. Consequently, we choose to respect park regulations and share the space with others.
Inyo National Forest
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
We attempted to photograph a bus graveyard. The night photography gods threw up some hurdles. Some were dangerous. These are some of the challenges thrown our way that night.
Nighttime at a mysterious bus graveyard in the middle of the desert.
“It’s like a parking lot here!”
I met up with night photographer Tony Donofrio at the lively Lemon Festival in Upland, CA. Later that evening, we drove to a mysterious bus graveyard hidden away in the desert. The freeways were clogged. The last of them involved killing our engines for 20 minutes and sitting on a freeway as emergency vehicles kept trying to inch past everyone.
An hour commute became two. Tony and I felt that if we had known about this traffic, we might have hung out the remainder of the evening at the Lemon Festival instead.
Gas station sandwiches
We realized that we would not be able to eat at the restaurant as planned. It was already dark, and we had planned on getting there while there was still light. We grabbed some pre-packaged gas station sandwiches and ate them en route.
“Where’s Tony?”
I arrived at the bus graveyard. I quickly changed my pants before Tony’s headlights would reveal my indecent exposure. However, he didn’t show up. I called. He had stopped about a quarter mile away. He was concerned that his car would get stuck on the rough dirt road. I went back to get him.
Night photo of an abandoned school bus with the emergency door missing.
“My camera’s dead!”
I had just put a battery in my Nikon D750 camera. To my surprise, the screen suddenly showed a message that I had to reset the clock. That was surprising. I had never seen that happen before. Furthermore, none of the buttons worked. The camera was completely unresponsive.
I changed batteries and lenses, all with the same result. After 20 minutes, I gave up and began using my other camera, the Pentax K-1 with the 28-105mm lens. I would not be able to photograph with the fisheye, which was my intent. I was, however, quite disturbed by this because I had to do event photography in a few days.
Night photo of abandoned passenger bus.
Stepping on a nail
The photography gods weren’t quite done with me yet. Right after putting away my non-functioning camera, I walked around a shadowy area. Suddenly, I stepped on a nail. This went through my shoe. I could feel the nail on the bottom of my right foot! I immediately felt that something was wrong, so I stopped. A wooden board was stuck to my shoe! I carefully pried it off with my other foot.
However, because I had not put my weight down, the nail never punctured my skin. I immediately went back to the car and put on boots with steel-shank soles.
Night photo of abandoned passenger bus.
Meanwhile, on the other side …
While I was having my challenges, Tony’s photoshoot was going well. Mostly. However, he had a near scrape himself. He was lighting the interior of a bus while walking slowly backward down the center aisle. After about 10 feet, he turned around with his light. With a jolt, he realized that the center floor access panel was no longer there! One more step and he would have fallen through!
Furthermore, I was able to resuscitate the unresponsive camera, the Nikon D750. After leaving the battery in for a while, the camera became responsive again. The camera clock is powered by an independent, rechargeable power source. This is charged when the main battery is installed. When I got home, I left the battery in. After this, it seemed to work fine. The camera worked without issue for the event.
The continuing mysteries are this. I had only left the main battery out for three days. However, my camera repairman says that this is long enough to create this problem. Strange. And also what I don’t know is why the camera seized up and was completely non-responsive.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
We are teaching a night photography workshop in the amazing Nelson ghost town near Las Vegas, Nevada. The workshop will cover the basics of night photography, composition, creativity, tips, techniques, star trails and more.
This is THE workshop for anyone who wants limitless photography opportunities with the safety of a group environment while learning a lot along the way!
Nelson is easily one of my favorite places to photograph. Whether it’s vintage cars, gas pumps, old Western buildings, soda machines, creepy dolls, a spectacular airplane “wreck” or phone booths, enormous post-apocalyptic “Mad Max”-style vehicles, vintage signs and more, you will have no shortage of fascinating subjects to photograph. This is, in short, a night photographer’s paradise.
Given its proximity to Las Vegas, it’s also quite accessible. The area is frequently used for movies, TV shows, music videos, commercials, wedding ceremonies and much more. However, we’ll have it all to ourselves.
What will you learn?
Quite a bit if you wish. You may learn various light painting techniques, night photography, composition, creative and practical techniques, star trails, light painting techniques and more, presented in a very accessible manner in a fascinating space.
You’ll also be among numerous creative photographers, giving you the opportunity to make friends, work together on photos, and share in the experience in a safe environment.
Furthermore, this isn’t one of those workshops where the instructors are inaccessible in the field. Both of us will be available throughout the evening to help if you need to. We will issue small 2-way radios for ease of communication, whether asking for help or coordinating with others.
Timothy Little
Timothy Little is a gifted nighttime landscape artist based on Cape Cod. Since 2006, he has used his moonlit and starlit photographic art to connect the natural beauty of “the Cape” with the inherent solitude of night. His portfolio is exclusive to night photography making him the only area artist specializing in this genre. He also specializes in photographing abandoned scenes in the southwest United States.
His work has been featured on Space.com, the Cape Cod Times, Cape Cod Life, Visit Massachusetts and several other New England based publications.
In addition to creating art, he shares his knowledge through group workshops and guided night tours.
Ken Lee
I am devoted to teaching night photography, light painting, star trails, and Milky Way photography. Whether that has been through the Night Photo Summit, my own workshops, or writing here at Photofocus, I hope to help you on your journey through night photography.
My photos have been featured in National Geographic Books, Omni Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Westways Magazine, and numerous other publications.
When is the night photography workshop?
The Nelson night photography workshop will be three nights: May 4-6 2023 under the beautiful Nevada desert moonlight. We will be staying in nearby Boulder City.
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
We attempted to photograph a bus graveyard. The night photography gods threw up some hurdles. Some were dangerous. These are some of the challenges thrown our way that night.
Nighttime at a mysterious bus graveyard in the middle of the desert.
“It’s like a parking lot here!”
I met up with night photographer Tony Donofrio at the lively Lemon Festival in Upland, CA. Later that evening, we drove to a mysterious bus graveyard hidden away in the desert. The freeways were clogged. The last of them involved killing our engines for 20 minutes and sitting on a freeway as emergency vehicles kept trying to inch past everyone.
An hour commute became two. Tony and I felt that if we had known about this traffic, we might have hung out the remainder of the evening at the Lemon Festival instead.
Gas station sandwiches
We realized that we would not be able to eat at the restaurant as planned. It was already dark, and we had planned on getting there while there was still light. We grabbed some pre-packaged gas station sandwiches and ate them en route.
“Where’s Tony?”
I arrived at the bus graveyard. I quickly changed my pants before Tony’s headlights would reveal my indecent exposure. However, he didn’t show up. I called. He had stopped about a quarter mile away. He was concerned that his car would get stuck on the rough dirt road. I went back to get him.
Night photo of an abandoned school bus with the emergency door missing.
“My camera’s dead!”
I had just put a battery in my Nikon D750 camera. To my surprise, the screen suddenly showed a message that I had to reset the clock. That was surprising. I had never seen that happen before. Furthermore, none of the buttons worked. The camera was completely unresponsive.
I changed batteries and lenses, all with the same result. After 20 minutes, I gave up and began using my other camera, the Pentax K-1 with the 28-105mm lens. I would not be able to photograph with the fisheye, which was my intent. I was, however, quite disturbed by this because I had to do event photography in a few days.
Night photo of abandoned passenger bus.
Stepping on a nail
The photography gods weren’t quite done with me yet. Right after putting away my non-functioning camera, I walked around a shadowy area. Suddenly, I stepped on a nail. This went through my shoe. I could feel the nail on the bottom of my right foot! I immediately felt that something was wrong, so I stopped. A wooden board was stuck to my shoe! I carefully pried it off with my other foot.
However, because I had not put my weight down, the nail never punctured my skin. I immediately went back to the car and put on boots with steel-shank soles.
Night photo of abandoned passenger bus.
Meanwhile, on the other side …
While I was having my challenges, Tony’s photoshoot was going well. Mostly. However, he had a near scrape himself. He was lighting the interior of a bus while walking slowly backward down the center aisle. After about 10 feet, he turned around with his light. With a jolt, he realized that the center floor access panel was no longer there! One more step and he would have fallen through!
Furthermore, I was able to resuscitate the unresponsive camera, the Nikon D750. After leaving the battery in for a while, the camera became responsive again. The camera clock is powered by an independent, rechargeable power source. This is charged when the main battery is installed. When I got home, I left the battery in. After this, it seemed to work fine. The camera worked without issue for the event.
The continuing mysteries are this. I had only left the main battery out for three days. However, my camera repairman says that this is long enough to create this problem. Strange. And also what I don’t know is why the camera seized up and was completely non-responsive.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
After gazing upon this enormous historic abandoned wooden hangar, here’s how I decided to light all these fantastic geometric shapes to create depth and interest. It took a lot of running around!
Historic World War II hangar
Upon driving up to the abandoned wooden hangar, we were in awe. The structure inspired awe despite its decay. The hangar housed B-24 Liberator bombers, two of which crashed within an hour of each other, among other accidents. This led some to believe the airfield to be cursed.
The interior of a World War II hangar
However, this evening was definitely not cursed. We were able to get many photos. This particular photo, however, is a hidden photo I discovered while cleaning out the “digital attic,” so I thought I’d share it with you.
Four steps to light painting the wooden hangar
I felt that the geometric shapes, enormous overhead beams, and windows could create some interesting symmetry. I wanted my light painting to support that and define some of the edges to create interest. Here’s how I did it.
Step one: Creating contrast on the walls
I ran over to camera left. I stood close to the wall and skimmed a warm white light across the wall.
Step two: Balancing that contrast on the other side
After that, I ran over to the right side of the wall. I basically did the same thing but to the right. I don’t always do this. However, what I was trying to create were shadows converging toward the middle. I also wanted relatively even illumination. This accomplished that.
Step three: Rimming the windows
I thought it would be interesting to rim the upper part of the windows. I ran outside. I used the same warm white light to illuminate everything from far away so that it would create a glow around the top of the windows. This would create more interest and depth.
Step four: Illuminating the large beams
I wanted to create an interesting pattern with the shadows of the immense beams holding the ceiling up. I stepped as far back as I could while still being inside and swept the upper part of the ceiling. This also defined the wooden roof more, as this otherwise would have been completely in shadow as well.
Other approaches to photographing the hangar
Abandoned World War II wooden hangar at night. I used a fisheye and light painted this with a vivid red light. Note the beautiful shadow play on the floor, created by the rising moon.
I photographed this hangar using various other approaches. It was easily one of my favorite structures I’ve photographed, offering inspiration and many interesting lines.
Here are a few more photos from the same evening. You can see how illuminating them with light painting can create many different moods.
The hangar is still abandoned. However, it is no longer accessible to the public in an effort to preserve it from vandals. I feel blessed to have been able to photograph it when I did.
Abandoned World War II wooden hangar at night with the incredible Milky Way overhead, shortly before the moon rose.
The back of an abandoned World War II wooden hangar at night.
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
Light painting is illuminating a subject at night with light. This can be disruptive to others. Or to wildlife. And it’s compounded if it is with a crowd of people, such as what was happening at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.
Mojave National Preserve, CA, part of the National Park System.
While I have joked about this while discussing photographs of people pointing their flashlights up at the Milky Way, this is actually a real issue borne out of some people’s frustration.
Where can I use artificial lighting in the National Park system?
The National Park Service manages 423 individual units. These 423 also include Monuments, Preserves, Reserves, Lakeshores, Rivers, Parkways, Historical Parks, Battlefields, Forests, and other designations. In 417 of these places, you may use artificial lighting, including light painting.
Joshua Tree National Park, CA.
Where is artificial lighting banned?
This has changed in the past couple of years. However, to the best of my knowledge, the use of artificial light sources to illuminate landscapes, rock formations, or other park features is banned in Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Capitol Reef and Grand Teton National Parks. This of course includes “light painting”.
However, it also includes ultra-dim static lighting as well. This ultra-dim lighting is typically as bright as the stars and is virtually imperceptible to people.
Controversy
Arches National Park, Utah.
The ruling from these six units has been controversial among night photographers. Some feel that using very dim lighting from static panels does not disturb anyone, to the point where they are often not discernible except to the very sensitive sensors of a camera set to photograph long exposures at high ISOs.
Joshua Tree National Park, CA
Some photographers point out that it is OK to have cars racing through the parks at night. And in the case of Grand Teton, there’s also a highway, international airport, and private properties within its boundaries, all of which create more light than photographers ever would.
There are multiple sides to this issue. And people from these various sides often make strong points.
Regardless, most night photographers acknowledge that light painting can be disruptive to wildlife and people. Consequently, we choose to respect park regulations and share the space with others.
Inyo National Forest
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
NIGHTAXIANS VIDEO YOUTUBE PODCAST:
Night photographers Tim Little, Mike Cooper and I all use Pentax gear. We discuss this, gear, adventures, light painting, lenses, night photography, creativity, and more in this ongoing YouTube podcast. Subscribe and watch to the Nightaxians today!
How do you go about light painting a building so it looks like the lights are on? How do you create texture in a reasonably natural way through the way you light paint? I’ll describe how to do this and more.
A night photo of a dual-smokestack cattle barn building, illuminated during the exposure.
Three steps to light painting
Step one: Illuminating the exterior naturally
I wanted to create some texture on the outside of the building so it wouldn’t be so dark. After all, some of it was in shadow. I thought I would brighten that a little while still making it look reasonably natural.
I thought that a bright interior giving the appearance of someone turning the lights on the inside would look good. It would give the building some more pop and make it stand out as well.
I walked inside and aimed the light up at the ceiling. By reflecting it off the ceiling, it gives the appearance of an overhead light. I did this in both rooms. I also aimed the light out the windows to give a little bit of edge lighting for added drama.
Step three: adding some light to the edges of the two smokestacks
The smokestacks on top of the building were intriguing. I wanted them to stand out while still looking natural. Again, because the moon was shining from the right side, I illuminated the right side of the two smokestacks while behind the building, almost backlighting them, but from an extreme angle. You can see the light painting on their right sides. This gives the smokestacks more definition while still looking natural.
Additional details
The road had occasional trucks zooming past. I made sure to begin the exposure when I saw that a truck was going to pass. I really liked how the red taillights looked, so I waited for a vehicle to be driving away to get those streaks. They seem to represent time passing the abandoned building by.
What is this building?
This building is the front part of a cattle barn. The back structure, where the cattle were housed, has mostly collapsed. This is located in the Mojave Desert between Big Bear Lake and Barstow in California.
Night photo of the collapsed cattle barn building in the back. Light painted during the exposure. This has it all: a Dutch angle with a fisheye lens!
VISIT ME, VISIT ME!
BOOKS AND PRINTS: Head on over to the Ken Lee Photography website to purchase books or look at night photography and long exposure prints and more. My books are available there and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Booktopia, Books A Million, IBS, and Aladin. If you enjoy the book, please leave a nice review, thanks!
We encountered this unusual structure in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert. Here’s how I got this unusual night photo.
Is it an abandoned smelter? Or an ancient teleportation device? You decide!
Imagination run amok
During the waning light of the sun, my friend Mike Cooper and I came across this unusual structure. This was a 100-year old smelter. But to me, who watches a lot of “Star Trek”, I instead thought of it as some sort of weird transporter. This is what would inform the way I went about photographing it.
I find that when photographing at night, looking at things as if they were something else often makes for more creative photographs. For example, instead of a wrecked car, I might look at it like a strange space monster. Instead of a tree, it might be a giant human-shaped inflatable wind puppet. This smelter would be an eerily glowing teleportation device.
Setting up the photo
Behind the scenes, photographing an abandoned giant smelter in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert.
When it grew dark, I placed my Pentax K-1 camera directly in front of the smelter, using a Feisol CT-3342 tripod for stability. I took great care to make sure it was centered. I thought it might look more odd and “sci-fi” with a straight centered photo. I focused on the building itself by shining some light and using auto-focus. I use this technique quite a bit for night photography.
Checking out the smelter
The smelter is a very large structure. Someone had placed a wooden pallet in front, presumably to climb in. I climbed up the pallet, considering everything carefully. It was dark. But more than that, my vision was not great, as I was experiencing flashes and floaters as well as increasingly hazy vision. Soon after this trip, I had surgery for a detached retina.
Mike had successfully climbed in and out to illuminate this from the interior. I battled my impulse to also climb inside, deciding not to do it, given my wonky vision.
Lighting the interior
I had to devise another way to make it look like the interior was glowing with an eerie energy, ready to “beam” someone to a distant land or spaceship. I decided that I would remove the pallet, hop up on one of the stones hidden behind the creosote plant, and wave my ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device back and forth to pick up the texture inside, blocking the light with my body. Then, still blocking the light, I would wave it up and down around the sides of the opening to make it look like the light was emanating from within.
I ended up doing this with numerous colors so I could picture how it looked. I did red, blue, green, and warm white. I ultimately decided on a color known among a few of us as Gas Station Teal (™), developed by night photographer Tim Little.
Lighting the exterior
I used a warm white light. Using a 90-degree angle from the structure, I skimmed the light gently on the front to pick up some of the texture. This also made the smelter “pop” a little more compared to the rest of the photo.
Streaks of light
I let the star trails streak across the sky. I did this by taking two minute exposures and letting the camera run for twelve minutes straight. The star trails would be reasonably long since I was using a Pentax 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at a focal length of 34mm. After all, the longer the focal length, the more I am zoomed in on everything – including the stars. When I would share the photo later, I would propose that the streaks of light may have been created during the dematerialization process. I did have two people “correct” me, saying that they thought it were star trails. There’s no fooling some people.
Stacking the six photos
I took the six photos and “stacked” them in Adobe Photoshop, changing the blending mode to “lighten”. This allows the lighter parts, including the light painting and star trails, to shine through all together as if it had been a single photo with a twelve-minute exposure. You can also “stack” photos in this manner using StarStax, a free program for Mac, PC, and Linux.
We encountered this unusual structure in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert. Here’s how I got this unusual night photo.
Is it an abandoned smelter? Or an ancient teleportation device? You decide!
Imagination run amok
During the waning light of the sun, my friend Mike Cooper and I came across this unusual structure. This was a 100-year old smelter. But to me, who watches a lot of “Star Trek”, I instead thought of it as some sort of weird transporter. This is what would inform the way I went about photographing it.
I find that when photographing at night, looking at things as if they were something else often makes for more creative photographs. For example, instead of a wrecked car, I might look at it like a strange space monster. Instead of a tree, it might be a giant human-shaped inflatable wind puppet. This smelter would be an eerily glowing teleportation device.
Setting up the photo
Behind the scenes, photographing an abandoned giant smelter in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert.
When it grew dark, I placed my Pentax K-1 camera directly in front of the smelter, using a Feisol CT-3342 tripod for stability. I took great care to make sure it was centered. I thought it might look more odd and “sci-fi” with a straight centered photo. I focused on the building itself by shining some light and using auto-focus. I use this technique quite a bit for night photography.
Checking out the smelter
The smelter is a very large structure. Someone had placed a wooden pallet in front, presumably to climb in. I climbed up the pallet, considering everything carefully. It was dark. But more than that, my vision was not great, as I was experiencing flashes and floaters as well as increasingly hazy vision. Soon after this trip, I had surgery for a detached retina.
Mike had successfully climbed in and out to illuminate this from the interior. I battled my impulse to also climb inside, deciding not to do it, given my wonky vision.
Lighting the interior
I had to devise another way to make it look like the interior was glowing with an eerie energy, ready to “beam” someone to a distant land or spaceship. I decided that I would remove the pallet, hop up on one of the stones hidden behind the creosote plant, and wave my ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device back and forth to pick up the texture inside, blocking the light with my body. Then, still blocking the light, I would wave it up and down around the sides of the opening to make it look like the light was emanating from within.
I ended up doing this with numerous colors so I could picture how it looked. I did red, blue, green, and warm white. I ultimately decided on a color known among a few of us as Gas Station Teal (™), developed by night photographer Tim Little.
Lighting the exterior
I used a warm white light. Using a 90-degree angle from the structure, I skimmed the light gently on the front to pick up some of the texture. This also made the smelter “pop” a little more compared to the rest of the photo.
Streaks of light
I let the star trails streak across the sky. I did this by taking two minute exposures and letting the camera run for twelve minutes straight. The star trails would be reasonably long since I was using a Pentax 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at a focal length of 34mm. After all, the longer the focal length, the more I am zoomed in on everything – including the stars. When I would share the photo later, I would propose that the streaks of light may have been created during the dematerialization process. I did have two people “correct” me, saying that they thought it were star trails. There’s no fooling some people.
Stacking the six photos
I took the six photos and “stacked” them in Adobe Photoshop, changing the blending mode to “lighten”. This allows the lighter parts, including the light painting and star trails, to shine through all together as if it had been a single photo with a twelve-minute exposure. You can also “stack” photos in this manner using StarStax, a free program for Mac, PC, and Linux.
We encountered this unusual structure in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert. Here’s how I got this unusual night photo.
Is it an abandoned smelter? Or an ancient teleportation device? You decide!
Imagination run amok
During the waning light of the sun, my friend Mike Cooper and I came across this unusual structure. This was a 100-year old smelter. But to me, who watches a lot of “Star Trek”, I instead thought of it as some sort of weird transporter. This is what would inform the way I went about photographing it.
I find that when photographing at night, looking at things as if they were something else often makes for more creative photographs. For example, instead of a wrecked car, I might look at it like a strange space monster. Instead of a tree, it might be a giant human-shaped inflatable wind puppet. This smelter would be an eerily glowing teleportation device.
Setting up the photo
Behind the scenes, photographing an abandoned giant smelter in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert.
When it grew dark, I placed my Pentax K-1 camera directly in front of the smelter, using a Feisol CT-3342 tripod for stability. I took great care to make sure it was centered. I thought it might look more odd and “sci-fi” with a straight centered photo. I focused on the building itself by shining some light and using auto-focus. I use this technique quite a bit for night photography.
Checking out the smelter
The smelter is a very large structure. Someone had placed a wooden pallet in front, presumably to climb in. I climbed up the pallet, considering everything carefully. It was dark. But more than that, my vision was not great, as I was experiencing flashes and floaters as well as increasingly hazy vision. Soon after this trip, I had surgery for a detached retina.
Mike had successfully climbed in and out to illuminate this from the interior. I battled my impulse to also climb inside, deciding not to do it, given my wonky vision.
Lighting the interior
I had to devise another way to make it look like the interior was glowing with an eerie energy, ready to “beam” someone to a distant land or spaceship. I decided that I would remove the pallet, hop up on one of the stones hidden behind the creosote plant, and wave my ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device back and forth to pick up the texture inside, blocking the light with my body. Then, still blocking the light, I would wave it up and down around the sides of the opening to make it look like the light was emanating from within.
I ended up doing this with numerous colors so I could picture how it looked. I did red, blue, green, and warm white. I ultimately decided on a color known among a few of us as Gas Station Teal (™), developed by night photographer Tim Little.
Lighting the exterior
I used a warm white light. Using a 90-degree angle from the structure, I skimmed the light gently on the front to pick up some of the texture. This also made the smelter “pop” a little more compared to the rest of the photo.
Streaks of light
I let the star trails streak across the sky. I did this by taking two minute exposures and letting the camera run for twelve minutes straight. The star trails would be reasonably long since I was using a Pentax 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at a focal length of 34mm. After all, the longer the focal length, the more I am zoomed in on everything – including the stars. When I would share the photo later, I would propose that the streaks of light may have been created during the dematerialization process. I did have two people “correct” me, saying that they thought it were star trails. There’s no fooling some people.
Stacking the six photos
I took the six photos and “stacked” them in Adobe Photoshop, changing the blending mode to “lighten”. This allows the lighter parts, including the light painting and star trails, to shine through all together as if it had been a single photo with a twelve-minute exposure. You can also “stack” photos in this manner using StarStax, a free program for Mac, PC, and Linux.
We encountered this unusual structure in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert. Here’s how I got this unusual night photo.
Is it an abandoned smelter? Or an ancient teleportation device? You decide!
Imagination run amok
During the waning light of the sun, my friend Mike Cooper and I came across this unusual structure. This was a 100-year old smelter. But to me, who watches a lot of “Star Trek”, I instead thought of it as some sort of weird transporter. This is what would inform the way I went about photographing it.
I find that when photographing at night, looking at things as if they were something else often makes for more creative photographs. For example, instead of a wrecked car, I might look at it like a strange space monster. Instead of a tree, it might be a giant human-shaped inflatable wind puppet. This smelter would be an eerily glowing teleportation device.
Setting up the photo
Behind the scenes, photographing an abandoned giant smelter in a ghost town in the Sonoran Desert.
When it grew dark, I placed my Pentax K-1 camera directly in front of the smelter, using a Feisol CT-3342 tripod for stability. I took great care to make sure it was centered. I thought it might look more odd and “sci-fi” with a straight centered photo. I focused on the building itself by shining some light and using auto-focus. I use this technique quite a bit for night photography.
Checking out the smelter
The smelter is a very large structure. Someone had placed a wooden pallet in front, presumably to climb in. I climbed up the pallet, considering everything carefully. It was dark. But more than that, my vision was not great, as I was experiencing flashes and floaters as well as increasingly hazy vision. Soon after this trip, I had surgery for a detached retina.
Mike had successfully climbed in and out to illuminate this from the interior. I battled my impulse to also climb inside, deciding not to do it, given my wonky vision.
Lighting the interior
I had to devise another way to make it look like the interior was glowing with an eerie energy, ready to “beam” someone to a distant land or spaceship. I decided that I would remove the pallet, hop up on one of the stones hidden behind the creosote plant, and wave my ProtoMachines LED2 light painting device back and forth to pick up the texture inside, blocking the light with my body. Then, still blocking the light, I would wave it up and down around the sides of the opening to make it look like the light was emanating from within.
I ended up doing this with numerous colors so I could picture how it looked. I did red, blue, green, and warm white. I ultimately decided on a color known among a few of us as Gas Station Teal (™), developed by night photographer Tim Little.
Lighting the exterior
I used a warm white light. Using a 90-degree angle from the structure, I skimmed the light gently on the front to pick up some of the texture. This also made the smelter “pop” a little more compared to the rest of the photo.
Streaks of light
I let the star trails streak across the sky. I did this by taking two minute exposures and letting the camera run for twelve minutes straight. The star trails would be reasonably long since I was using a Pentax 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at a focal length of 34mm. After all, the longer the focal length, the more I am zoomed in on everything – including the stars. When I would share the photo later, I would propose that the streaks of light may have been created during the dematerialization process. I did have two people “correct” me, saying that they thought it were star trails. There’s no fooling some people.
Stacking the six photos
I took the six photos and “stacked” them in Adobe Photoshop, changing the blending mode to “lighten”. This allows the lighter parts, including the light painting and star trails, to shine through all together as if it had been a single photo with a twelve-minute exposure. You can also “stack” photos in this manner using StarStax, a free program for Mac, PC, and Linux.
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