Orbs – Long Exposure Light Painting Photography – Video Tutorial
In order to make an orb, you'll need some battery operated fairy lights, speaker wire, electrical tape, and a functional arm to spin it with.
I recommend getting white LEDs because you can change the colors of them at any time by taping some Roscolux colored gels over them.
Once you've got some fairy lights, cut the two wires and extend them using speaker wire. Watch this video tutorial by TxPilot to see this process being done in real time.
Now that you have your orb tool, you are ready to start taking the light painting photo. Set your camera up on a tripod and use manual mode with auto-focusing off.
The specific camera settings you need to use will always vary - it all depends on how bright the fairy lights are in relation to the environment they are being photographed in. Sometimes I take one photograph with the camera settings adjusted for the landscape and then another separate photograph with the settings adjusted for the orb and then combine them in Photoshop by placing both of the images in a Photoshop document as layers, and then selecting "Lighten" or "Screen" as the Blending Mode on the top layer.
Disco Planet by ~Vlue on deviantART
This was photographed in my front yard at night. With a 30 second exposure taking place, I used a large flashlight with large colored gels over it to light paint the tree, foreground, and even background. After that, I combined the photos in Photoshop using Lighten as the blending mode for all of the layers.
This was photographed at 4:08 AM on July 15th, 2011. If you wake up early enough to catch the early dawn or late dusk light, you can get both the orb and the environment properly exposed in the same shot without the need to combine the shots in Photoshop. Your next best bet after dawn/dusk light is to use moonlight. A full moon on a clear, cloudless night works best. You can literally capture photos that look like they were taken in the day time if you use the right camera settings to make the picture brighter (lengthening the shutter speed, raising the ISO value, and/or lowering the F Number).
There are a few more orb photos I made that can be found on the Photo Extremist Facebook page.
And of course, for a collection of orbs created by light painters on Flickr, check out the Orbs group.
Shout outs to TCB for making the original video that showed me how to do this and TxPilot for making the orb tool tutorial.
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July 19th, 2011 - 03:41
Awesome tutorial. For the last pic I guess a flexible Arc with leds on it….
July 19th, 2011 - 05:06
Thanks. That’s what other people were guessing too (on youtube) but it actually was a hula hoop with LEDs attached around it – someone got it already!
July 21st, 2011 - 14:24
Taped LEDs to Some Footballs and spun them…My Guess, Thanks for your channel
July 22nd, 2011 - 22:43
Greetings, How dothe Mystery orbs.. Could these orbs that displaying discontinuity of the light…, could they be made with a similar xmas light system, set to one color (yellow), AND set to run in flashing mode? Ahhh. I just saw the answer. What are fairy lights?
July 24th, 2011 - 12:27
Hi Evan, hope this finds you happy and well, great tutorial, can’t wait for your videos to come out, I want them now, yours Tony.
July 26th, 2011 - 21:30
Really cool stuff! I really appreciate your photos and videos (about photos)! =]
August 13th, 2011 - 05:49
Another great idea.
One suggestion, rather than cut the wires and extended them just leave the battery pack at the end with the taped lights. Tie/tape a rope or cable around the battery pack and you are good to go. It will also give you the weight you want at the end.
November 14th, 2011 - 12:41
COOOOOLLL !!!! Thank you ,great tutorial !
January 18th, 2012 - 09:54
I Used a Yo-Yo…. Lots of good weight on the bottom… Worked great! thanks for the ideas! I’m going to try spinning an umbrella next.
May 14th, 2012 - 08:47
man lovein this
June 3rd, 2012 - 06:41
I love your long exposure work!
I would be delighted if you would add your photography resource to Geotog.com
Regards Tony at Geotog
October 28th, 2012 - 14:56
was looking through some of your great work and would like to know how you did the hands over the face and still see your face in photoshop,cheers eugene
keep up the good work!!!
December 9th, 2012 - 23:47
Great tutorial, I was having trouble with my orbs but your tutorial has taught me a lot of new tricks. Thanks for sharing.
Keep up the good work.
December 19th, 2012 - 12:36
Last night i tried to pass an order but being on morphine ( bone cancer) I had a lot of trouble doing so. All I wanted is one copy and no more. Could you cancell the other orders.
Benoit Desmarteaux
733 rang 3 EST
Ste-Cécile de Milton, Qc
J0E-2C0
January 17th, 2013 - 07:20
Hi,
I bought your DVD totorial about a month and a half ago but I still did not received it yet and it appears on my master card . It is maybe a mistake but I would want to receive it because I find it very interesting.
Benoît Desmarteaux
733 rang 3 EST
Ste-Cécile de Milton,Qc J0E-2C0 CANADA
Telephone: 450-360-3911
Thank you
January 18th, 2013 - 09:12
Hi
Last night i ordered around midnight your DVD but i did not know if the order went throught so this morning when i wake up i passed another order to make sure that the order went through correctly. Would you please cancel the order of this morning if that one went through. Because I need only one and not 2 of them. »»Thank you very much and next time i will pay more attention because i am French and sometimes it is not that easy to understand what we should do. Thank again.
Benoît Desmarteaux
733 rang 3 Est
Ste=Cécile de Milton,Qc
J0E-2C0
450-360-3911
January 25th, 2013 - 13:42
Hi,
I would like to know when you think I would be receiving my dvd. thanks a lot
February 3rd, 2013 - 05:30
Great stuff! I love it! I tried some of the basic things myself but I alwasy seem to have the trace of my shadow (me). How do you get rid of or avoid the trace of your shadow? Thanks!
April 3rd, 2013 - 09:28
Meen you are just too much, i cant just decribe you keep up the good work.
April 13th, 2013 - 06:10
Evan, the link to amazon for fairy lights showing product unavailable and they don’t know if they will get more. Thought you should know. Any idea where else I can look for these? Thanks!