Firewall - Altering Reality with Light Art

I have long been an admirer of pcb's and motherboards from inside electrical equipment. Strange thing to like I know but the minute details, small imprints, chips and circuits all make for a perfect canvas to light paint over. They are mini works of art in their own right but artists like Tcb, R Digi and Mart Barras all inspired me to use them in my shots and add to their beauty.

The black microchips always leave a nice uniform square area of dead space inside the board which can be painted over from another tripod.

First step here is to work out the lighting on the board and the chosen composition. I had a 50mm lens mounted on the macro rings so I could get super close to all the detail. The board was mounted on a light stand so I could light it from both sides and from above and below.

Once satisfied I marked the position of the chip (middle frame) with a dry wipe marker on the camera screen and off I went to tripod number 2 in my front room. Here I had set up my large diffuser, my girlfriend stood on the other side and a black piece of card with a square cut from the middle. This was clamped between the camera and Lauren and matched the size of the chip outline from tripod number 1. I swapped lenses to a wide angle and lined her up so she fell within the middle of the square on the board and the black card blanked off the rest of the frame. This ensured none of the second part of the exposure interfered with the first part.

Once happy I went back to the kitchen to tripod 1, put the macro lens on and turned out the lights.
I fired the shutter and lit the computer board, paying special attention to the back to bring all the fine detail out. Once happy I replaced the lens cap and moved to tripod 2. I swapped lenses back to wide angle mid-exposure and removed the lens cap. I went behind Lauren and lit all around her with the Light Painting Brushes black fibers and fired my flash to give her form a little pop. Closed the shutter once happy and got that rush of adrenaline I get when I capture an image I'm pleased with.

I hope this all makes sense and I'm sure I'll use this technique again in the near future and I'll add a couple of shots of my set up for continuity.

If you'd like to see more light painting on Steemit then give @lightpaintershub "Lightpainters United" a follow and you'll be introduced into the world of light painting.

Happy days.

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