Yesterday, I went down to the new Art Obsessions gallery in Reno and dropped off some more prints for the print rack. I'm really excited about the future of this gallery, when all the other shops and restaurants open up it should be very busy there. Afterwards, I headed to Downtown Reno, Nevada for some photo fun, light painting with the Canon 5Dsr and a 24-105mm lens.
The neon signs are perfect for this type of photography. Exposures are handheld and about 1 - 2 seconds long. The ISO on these were somewhere between 125 and 320. The lens aperture varied quite a bit depending on how bright the signs were. When I light paint signs, I try to hold the camera perfectly still for the first part of the exposure, then I zoom and/or move the lens with my fingers crossed... I tend to adjust my exposure and camera movement until I get a shot or two that I feel are compositionaly looking good and the exposure is looking good too. The images tend to get a decent amount of Photoshop work. The highlights and shadows are adjusted and the color is balanced to where I feel it looks correct.
These are challenging to shoot, but a ton of fun. What do you think of these photos? Which one is your favorite?
Thank you for looking!
-Scott Thompson