Adventures In Light Painting

How to use digital tools to breathe new life into old lighting techniques.

- Steve Bedell

I’VE KNOWN JOHN HARTMAN for many years. He is regarded in the industry as not only an outstanding photographer but also one of the hardest working and most successful photographers in the portrait world.

But a few years ago, Hartman became interested in an unexpected photo niche: light painting. In typical John Hartman fashion, he dove right in. He searched for all he could find on the subject and went to work practicing. And practicing. And practicing. Once he felt he had the technique at a level where he could charge professional fees for it, he started attracting clients. A short time later he had photographed everything from food to Ferraris, petunias to Porsches, using light-painting techniques. These assignments usually led to large metal prints hanging in a boardroom or a state-of-the-art garage.

As soon as Hartman started posting these images on social media, other photographers wanted to know how they too could create these outstanding results, so he started a very limited number of workshops in different parts of the country to teach his techniques.

To give you an idea of why digital light painting affords more opportunities now than with film, let’s take a quick look at the process. Light painting means lighting a subject with some type of light source in darkness while the camera shutter remains open. With film, we are limited to trying to create the image in one shot. However, with digital technology, we can take many different photos, each one lighting a specific area of the subject, and combine them later in Photoshop.

I recently sat down with Hartman to ask him just how he creates these new incredible images that have such a unique look.

Shutterbug: What is your definition of light painting and how does it differ from other types of lighting?