Wanderlust Workshop: Painting with Light
One of the main focuses and goals of my recent Guatemalan workshop was experimenting with different types of lighting techniques. Over the two weeks, we practiced several different methods in various situations; however, one that can be leveraged primarily for landscape or architectural photography is painting with light.
We used this technique to light the famous Arco de Santa Maria in Antigua during a busy weekend evening. Armed only with a tripod, camera, wide lens and GL-1 Hotlight, we were able to create the image that you see below. Even though the streets were packed with tourists, patrons and street vendors, we were able to ghost out the people on the street using the bulb setting with a minute-long exposure. As you can see, most people disappeared completely except for a few that stayed stationery throughout the full exposure.
We decided to use our painting with light skills when we went on an epic 4 AM hike through the jungle of Tikal with the goal of climbing to the highest pyramid’s peak in order to watch the sunrise and hear the jungle come alive. This proved to be our most intense lighting workshop yet because it was so pitch black that at times we wouldn’t even realize a pyramid standing right next to us, which made it extremely difficult to figure out where to begin lighting. We were racing the clock, which in this case was the sun, giving us only mere minutes to set up each lighting scenario in an unknown setting. By using two different forms of light, the GL-1 Hotlight (an orange light) and two Canon 600 speedlites (a blue light), we were able to paint the pyramids while still lighting perimeter surroundings to create the unique images below very quickly.
