Sphere of the dark

Mike Harris shows you how to add multiple orbs of light to your images with this light-painting technique

- Mike Harris

Light orbs are about as close as you can get to performing a photographic magic trick and, in this project, we’re going to step behind the curtain and show you how it’s done. You might assume light orb photography involves plenty of trickery in Adobe Photoshop but, in reality, it’s a light-painting technique that can be performed and captured entirely in-camera.

The basic technique involves attaching a piece of string to a torch and spinning it around in a circular loop, while carefully moving from side to side to create a 3D orb. While you might assume that you need all manner of specialist kit to complete this project, you really only need a tripod and a torch to create these mesmerizing balls of light that will surely leave your friends and family guessing.

As with any low-light project, we recommend working alongside a friend as a safety precaution after dark, but the technique is also much easier with two people working together – one can operate the camera while the other creates the orbs. If you’re working on your own in your back garden, you can, of course, capture light orbs alone using a 10-sec self-timer. This will allow you just enough time to get into position and start swinging before the shutter fires, although this is far less fun!

Once you’ve got the hang of this light-painting technique, you’ll be able to paint multiple orbs around your scene by capturing a sequence of images and blending them together in post-production.

Light orb setup

ALL OF THE CAMERA KIT YOU NEED TO CREATE AND CAPTURE GLORIOUS ORBS OF LIGHT ON LOCATION 

1 Sturdy tripod