Light painting with Laser Pointers

Taken with my Nikon D5100 - f/4.2 ISO 100 10"

This is a little technique that I am still toying with myself. 

I'd like to practice a little more but as most of my laser light painting ideas require models, and don't really show the models faces, it can be somewhat difficult to find willing participants without having to fork out a pretty penny for their time which I'd rather not do for test shoots if I can help it. 

This is actually very simple to do as long as you have the following items available:

• Camera with long exposure
• Tripod
• Wireless trigger (optional)
• Laser pointer
• Very dark room or night time location
• Subject (of course)
• Editing software (optional)

You will need to set up your camera on the tripod and frame your shot with the lights on, or curtains open or if outdoors at night, using a torch, setting your focus to ensure your subject isn't too blurred. Please do keep in mind that if your subject is a living thing, there will always be a little bit of movement but that shouldn't be too much of an issue with this technique.

I was in a dark room and it was also late in the evening so there was very little light outside.
I purchased THESE laser pointers from eBay, although pretty cool, the green one completely stopped working after a few days and I found only the red one was really bright enough for my desired effect...so I stuck with the red for this particular shoot...as you may have already noticed!

As you are using a tripod, you can use your highest quality ISO, in the above image I set mine to 100.
Tests earlier in this shoot had me leaving the shutter open for 30 seconds but I found that this let in too much light and reflections whereas 10 seconds, for me, was spot on but I would recommend playing with your speeds a little to find your own preference.
Using manual mode, and with my aperture up at 4.2 (highest for the focal length I was using on this lens) to capture more of the laser light, I fired my camera off using my wireless trigger and basically scribbled like mad with the laser pointer...

SAFETY NOTICE: Do not point lasers into subjects face, this is dangerous and can damage their eyesight. Good practice would be to ensure they are closing their eyes and are also wearing shades to eliminate blindness!!!

...experiment with different patterns while shooting to get different effects, it also takes a while to get used to how fast you want to move the pointer; too slow and you cover little ground before the shot is completed and let in too much light in any one spot, move too fast and the light becomes a little too weak...but it all depends on how you want the final image to look and once again, if you find yourself running out of time, just increase your shutter speed a little and close up your aperture to accommodate what you require.
If you do not have a wireless trigger, you can use the cameras on-board timer (assuming it has one), you need to avoid using the button on the cameras as the shake may have a negative result on the image.
Your subject, is also a reflective surface...it is great to experiment with different types of clothing materials and styles as they all add a unique effect...especially if shiny.

When I uploaded my images to my computer (I use Lightroom 4), I noticed there was a little more background detail than I wanted as the subject was relatively close to a wall which I didn't want to be visible. With a little tweak of the shadows and highlights, my background was completely blacked out.
If you would prefer to perfect your images in-camera and want a pitch black background then your best options with lasers is a wide open space with nothing behind your subject as anything behind them will be highlighted by your laser.

Just have a play with your camera settings and your scribbling techniques and see what you come up with, I know there are many examples already out there (an example or two at the bottom of this blog) to get inspiration from if you're not too keen on my basic ones. Please do link your own work in the comments section as I'd love to see how you get on with this.

Taken with my Nikon D5100 - f/4.2 ISO 100 10"

Well, this is the first ever time I have written a guide on here, I know it is relatively short and isn't exactly alive with images but please do let me know how you think I did all the same.
If I start getting any requests for guides or reviews, I can start them from scratch (this one was based on a shoot that happened several months ago) and also throw in lots of behind the scenes images/footage from the shoot itself to help illustrate what I am doing to get the results I want.

    

Images immediately above are from the Flickr website. Please click on images to see them in all of their glory along with other works by the photographers that captured them.