Camera Equipment and Settings

Camera:

You need a camera with the ability to control the aperature size and the shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more drawing time your artist will have. I use a Nikon D80 which gives me complete manual control over all settings allowing maximum flexability over the process. But, you may be surprised that any automatic camera has the capability of taking a long exposure picture giving you enough time to draw something. We will get to that in a minute. Everyone seems to have a camera these days, a point and shoot, a video camera and there may even be a camera in your cell phone.

Tripod:

Taking a photograph using a shutter speed slower then a 30th of a second (unless you have some kind of vibration reduction), most people will have a hard time keeping the camera still long enough for the subject to remain in focus. And since we will be working with exposure times longer then that, you will need to fix the camera in a stable position. A tripod is the first thing that comes to mind but you can secure the camera in other ways. Place it on a table, a fence post, the roof of your car or even on the ground. Tie 3 sticks together and tie the camera to that. Look around and find a way to keep that camera from moving. Look on the bottom of your camera and you may see a threaded hole. Go to the hardware store and find a bolt that fits that hole and build some kind of platform. (Warning: be careful not to screw any bolt in deeper then needed. You can damage your camera.)

Click here for a list of Instructables that teach you how to make your own tripod.

Remote Control

I like to use a remote control to trigger the shutter, further reducing camera shake. If one came with your camera (or one is available as an option), learn to use it. [remote picture here]

Of course there is a whole other school of camera toss people who open the shutter and purposely move the camera. They are a spin off sect and we won't talk about them here. [camera toss link here]

That is all the photography equipment you need. That is all that the PikaPika group uses and that is all that the artists in the Sprint commercials use, a single camera on a tripod. It is that simple.

Settings: The settings are simple with my Nikon. I put the camera in Manual mode, set the ISO to 100 (lower ISOs produce less grain or picture noise), set the aperature in the middle of the range, to f8 for instance (experiment with different f stops once you view the results) and set the shutter to bulb which allows the shutter to remain open as long as you hold the shutter release button down. [settings picture her]

(Warning: Educational Content - The term "bulb" comes from the early style cameras that used air pressure to activate the shutter. The pressure was supplied by squeezing a rubber bulb at the end of a hose that was attached to the shutter mechanizism. The shutter remained open as long as the bulb was squeezed and closed when released. I have a great old family photo that my uncle took by attaching a long hose to the camera and stepping on the bulb which allowed him to appear in the picture with the rest of the family. In the picture, you can see the hose and the bulb under his foot.)

What if your camera does not have a bulb setting? Check the menus. It may have a shutter time available for up to 30 seconds which is plenty of time to draw all kinds of pictures.

What if your camera does not even have manual settings? Think you may have stumped me with that question? Think again. First, leave the camera in automatic mode. Then find a camera setting that prevents the flash from firing. Now, when you take a picture in a very dark room, you will find that the computer in your camera will hold the shutter open for as long as it calculates is needed to correctly let enough light in to give you a nice picture. This can be a long time, long enough to draw a mural.

This final method is hit or miss and will take some experimentation and reading of your camera manual, but that might be what you need to do to get started in the light doodle business using what you have. Feel adventurous? Build a pinhole camera with no shutter. You just take a cover off the lens and put it back on when ever you feel like it. [pinhole camera link here]

Next - Light drawing tools

Previous - Camera equipment and settings