Looking for an excuse to get outside on a crisp November evening? Bundle up, and grab your camera and some lights for this photography light painting challenge! All SJSU students who participate in this contest will be entered into a drawing for some fun outdoor themed prizes.
Useful Light Painting Tips:
Get away from city lights - the darker the landscape, the better your photos will turn out.
Grab a handful of lights. If you don’t have a flashlight, you can use the flashlight app on your phone. If you want to paint with a different color, you can hold a piece of thin colored plastic or paper over the light.
Experiment using different exposure times on your camera
Longer exposure times (20-60 seconds) will give you more time to draw, will make the background lighter, but human subjects might appear blurry.
Shorter exposure times (1-2 seconds) will give you less time to draw, will make your background darker, but human subjects will be sharper.
Lots of cell phones and inexpensive digital cameras have exposure times somewhere in their settings.
If you want to make any dark items in your photo brighter (such as a human or tree for example) consider illuminating them with a light (not the one that you’re drawing with).
If you are participating in the “Spartans Summiting Mt. Everest From Home Challenge,” this program counts as one of the “Camps” you will need to stop at to make it to the Summit!
If you would like to be entered into the prize drawing, please tag us on instagram @sjsu_outdooradventures by end of day on Monday, November 30.
