Painting with Light by John Nader

A workshop review by Ron Vachon

Ok, I admit it. I’m a repeat offender. This was the 2nd time I attended this workshop; it was that good. I’ve seen the results of John’s light painting work and appreciate the skill he has developed to do such nice artwork. John Nader has studied several times with Light painting expert, John Hartman at Texas school and several times in Wisconsin. John Nader was able to show and describe several of Hartman’s techniques which give light painted items their unique qualities.

Light painting is a photographic technique that involves the use of a light source to create unique images in a dark environment. In this technique, the shutter speed of the camera is set to a longer duration and the photographer ‘paints’ the subject with a light source. The first portion of the class was a presentation, where John shared planning, possible subjects, strategies and his equipment list. Then John gave us a set of about 40 images, of a Ford Model A, that he had light painted beforehand. Then he showed us how to build the final product using that base layer and stacking layers on top using little portions of the car, which had been hand-lit. Then the class practiced what we had just learned to make our own image in Photoshop. Admittedly, this was sort of out of order from how one would attempt a light painting project, but it worked perfectly for our class because the light painting needed to be done in the dark.

The car was a souped-out Toyota Supra built for speed. It was white with red accents and tricked out with about everything you could want in a show-car including beefed up sound system, carbon fiber hood and other body parts, an airbag system to lower the car and mood-lighting on the undercarriage.

During the evening portion, we learned that it is important to set your camera on a tripod in a location and not to move from that spot. Then we took our own pictures of a base layer of the car while the sun is setting. After sunset, we used our remote triggers on our cameras to take a series of images. With the light wand in-hand, John moved around the car and lit specific sections, such as the front bumper, then the side of the driver’s door, then the rear spoiler, then the wheel and so on, all around the car. The class took long exposures of each section of the car. Everyone in the class now has his/her own set of images which we can use to practice building their own unique final light painted image in photoshop.

I would highly recommend John’s class as an excellent way to begin your light painting journey, especially if you’re going on to take John Hartman’s class at Texas School.