Light painting is amazingly creative and fun. And you can do it for cheap. But first, let’s briefly describe light painting.
What is light painting?
Light painting is a term that is often used loosely to describe any addition of light to a night photograph. Really, though, light painting is a technique that uses a handheld light source to illuminate a scene during a long exposure. You are quite literally painting the scene with light. Night photographers have used this technique for many decades.
High quality flashlights for cheap
Ordinary LED flashlights work. But what really works well are ones that hold detail.
“CRI” stands for “Color Rendering Index.” It’s a measurement of how natural colors render under artificial white light as compared to sunlight. It’s measured on a scale of 0 to 100. The closer to 100, the truer colors should look under its light. Generally, a CRI of 80 and above is considered good for a flashlight.
I have two suggestions. They’re both under $30 and they’re both over 90 CRI.
I purchased the Wurkkos light a while back after considering many options. You may read about how I looked for this inexpensive yet fantastic flashlight when you have a chance. In short, it has a pleasing warm light that holds detail, is fully adjustable brightness, is USB-rechargeable and is small. It often sells for under $30 on Amazon.
Wurkkos FC11 LED flashlight
Above: I light painted the car with a Wurkkos FC11 LED flashlight.
ACEBEAM Pokelit AA EDC LED flashlight
Before I go any further, I have never used this flashlight. However, it has three brightness modes and a CRI of 90+, is small, and seems to have a warm white light. It takes AA batteries, so you cannot charge it via USB. Then again, it’s also well under $20 on Amazon as of this writing.
What about brightness?
You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned it. For some reason, people just getting into light painting subjects want super-bright flashlights. In my opinion, that’s one of the least important aspects of quality light painting (unless you are trying to light paint a distant mountain).
Think about it. If you are using a high ISO for your camera, the last thing you typically need is an absurdly bright light. Your camera is super sensitive to light already, so a bright light gets you nowhere.
Even for the full moon night photography with light painting that I so often show here, a bright light is not really crucial. I prefer to light paint for a longer amount of time to get an “even coat of light.” In other words, I want the light to look nice and even, with no unwanted hot spots.
The ProtoMachines LED2 is approximately 400 lumens. Most of the time, I use it at approximately ⅔ of its full brightness. The Wurkkos can go up to 1300 lumens if you really wish, while the ACEBEAM is 550 lumens at its brightest. Both are noticeably brighter than the ProtoMachines, in other words.
What if I want to add color?
Above: I used blue gels and a blue plastic bag to color the light from a Streamlight LED flashlight for this photo of a poorly-parked bus.
Use some gels from a $5 Roscolux Swatchbook sample booklet. Simply put these in front of your flashlight. Bam. Done. Yes, it’s a little more fussy than being able to switch colors on the fly. These are some of the trade-offs from light painting without spending tons of money. However, it doesn’t impede you from getting great results.
Are there LED flashlights that produce color that are inexpensive?
Yes. And because I am incredibly nice, I’ll mention one or two. I have not used any of these, but believe they can produce high-quality results.
Colorshine 10 Color Changing RGB LED Flashlight 3W RGB LED
Tim Little used this Colorshine light prior to getting a ProtoMachines light. He says that it produces really good results. Best of all, the light typically sells for under $33. It produces “10 different LED colors with flash and smooth color-change modes” which they describe as “red, green, blue, orange, turquoise, purple, yellow, cyan, violet, and white.” They have been selling this light for many years on eBay. No CRI is listed, but as I mentioned, Tim has gotten good results from it.
Wurrkos WK40 RGBW LED flashlight
Like the Colorshine flashlight, I have not used this. However, I’ve had good luck with the Wurkkos FC11, so I thought I’d mention this. This produces red, green, blue, and white colors, as the name suggests. I do not see CRI listed anywhere. You may charge it via USB, and it comes with a diffuser. It’s also compatible with various light painting brushes, meaning that you can screw them on if that’s important to you. I don’t know anyone who has this light.
Color gels vs. RGBW LED flashlights
Color gels are more of a hassle to use, fly away in the wind, and get bent and broken. However, they also offer far more flexibility with colors and are very inexpensive.
RGBW flashlights only produce red, green, blue, and white colors. However, that may be enough. You may also try to mix colors by light painting with one color after another to produce other colors. Of course, you can do this with gels as well, producing an even larger variety of colors.
What is so great about expensive RGB LED flashlights?
The advantage of a ProtoMachines LED2 or LED8 is that it produces every color in the RGB spectrum. It also allows you to control the saturation and brightness from 0-100%. It also has presets and is specifically designed for light painting subjects. You may slowly morph between colors of the spectrum if you wish. The light is extremely high quality. Also, the brightness between colors corresponds far better, as with most if not all RGBW lights, there can be a tremendous difference in brightness from one color to the next.
Even with the RGB Critter 2.0 from Ants on a Melon, which is $125, there is an enormous difference in brightness from one color to the next.
When something is designed specifically for light painting subjects, there’s a quality and convenience factor that cannot be beat.
However, it is comforting to know that one can create extremely high-quality images with items that are modest and inexpensive. There isn’t a huge barrier to entry here. I hope this inspires you to begin practicing adding extra creativity, texture, color, and illumination to your night photos.
