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My wife Lori is an incessent doodler and I've played with long exposure photography for years. Inspired by the PikaPika light artistry group and the ease of digital cameras we took on the light drawing art form to see what we could do.
We have a large gallery of drawings on our website: LightDoodles.com. There you will also find a description of how we draw and a brief history of light drawing.
Any light source can serve as your creative implement and we shopped for every keychain flashlight, gimick pen and light wand we could find.
But we finally sat down and asked what manner of flashlight would accomadate Lori's most natural and comfortable hand posistion while drawing in mid-air. The answer was to hold the light just like a pencil with instant on/off control directly under the index finger.
Since we wanted to complete each full drawing in one exposure, she needed to be able to switch between different colored pens quickly. We also found that when drawing a large picture we needed the light to be completely exposed on all sides to minimize fading around the edges.
With these parameters, I went hunting for parts at the local electronics and hardware stores and came up with what turned out to be a simple and versatile tool that resulted in some incredible art.
We have a large gallery of drawings on our website: LightDoodles.com. There you will also find a description of how we draw and a brief history of light drawing.
Any light source can serve as your creative implement and we shopped for every keychain flashlight, gimick pen and light wand we could find.
But we finally sat down and asked what manner of flashlight would accomadate Lori's most natural and comfortable hand posistion while drawing in mid-air. The answer was to hold the light just like a pencil with instant on/off control directly under the index finger.
Since we wanted to complete each full drawing in one exposure, she needed to be able to switch between different colored pens quickly. We also found that when drawing a large picture we needed the light to be completely exposed on all sides to minimize fading around the edges.
With these parameters, I went hunting for parts at the local electronics and hardware stores and came up with what turned out to be a simple and versatile tool that resulted in some incredible art.
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Signing UpStep 1Parts List
I'll be creating a blue light pen. Attention to voltage requirements and current draw are important as different color LEDs have different ratings. Here is a list of the parts used.
Plastic Tubing - 5/8" outside diameter - 1/2" inside diameter
Plastic Tubing - 1/2" outside diameter - 3/8" inside diameter
1 LED
1 Normally Open Switch
1 20 ohm Resistor - size is determined using Ohm's law
3 1.5 volt Button Batteries
Heat shrink tubing
24 gauge wire
Electrician's tape
LEDs, switch, resistors, heat shrink and electrician's tape purchased at local electronics store.
The plastic tubing was "discovered" in the hardware store. Many sizes are displayed on spools which you purchase by the foot. The 5/8" outside diameter clear tubing best fit Lori's hand. The natural curve of the tubing turned out to be ergonomic and it helps keep the pens upright and stable when placed down.
The switch is a "Normally Open" switch which means the circuit is complete and the light is on only when the button is pushed and held down. As soon as the button is released, the circuit is broken and the light goes off. Otherwise, I chose this switch for it's size and shape, not for any of it's other electrical properties.
Adding a resistor to the circuit is good practice obeying Ohm's Law.
Plastic Tubing - 5/8" outside diameter - 1/2" inside diameter
Plastic Tubing - 1/2" outside diameter - 3/8" inside diameter
1 LED
1 Normally Open Switch
1 20 ohm Resistor - size is determined using Ohm's law
3 1.5 volt Button Batteries
Heat shrink tubing
24 gauge wire
Electrician's tape
LEDs, switch, resistors, heat shrink and electrician's tape purchased at local electronics store.
The plastic tubing was "discovered" in the hardware store. Many sizes are displayed on spools which you purchase by the foot. The 5/8" outside diameter clear tubing best fit Lori's hand. The natural curve of the tubing turned out to be ergonomic and it helps keep the pens upright and stable when placed down.
The switch is a "Normally Open" switch which means the circuit is complete and the light is on only when the button is pushed and held down. As soon as the button is released, the circuit is broken and the light goes off. Otherwise, I chose this switch for it's size and shape, not for any of it's other electrical properties.
Adding a resistor to the circuit is good practice obeying Ohm's Law.
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Picture the image in your mind and when you draw, the camera captures all the light from the pens and creates a complete picture.
Hope that helps.
Quite an honor.
Check it out: http://vimeo.com/31670713
second i would like to say this is a great project and i love your art
third i would like to recommend some of my idea for you to think about meaning:
a) why not for the light you can dim or make the led brighter for you to make a sense of depth in the picture. my recommendation is to use PWM using 555 ic.that way you can change the intensity of the light.
b) instead of having multiple light pen why not just build 2 light pin 1 being just white and the other one is using the RGB Led that could make almost any colour in the spectrum except for white. if you try making white with it, it would just turn its self so dim it would become off
there this one web page that give great tutorial about this led
but it use a microcontroller. but u can easily change it to use multiple 555 PWM
http://www.mbeckler.org/microcontrollers/rgb_led/
First, turn the flash off (see page 37). If the room is dark enough, the camera will leave the shutter open for several seconds, trying to gather enough light to make a decent picture. That is when you can do some drawing. Put the camera on a tripod or on the edge of a table for stability. Try it with the flash on too which will let you see who is drawing.
You may also get a few extra seconds by going to "Exposure" mode and cranking that setting to +2.0EV. That might force the shutter to stay open a little longer.
Good luck and thanks for your question.
If the voltage is close enough, you can get away with not using a resistor. There is some resistance in the wire and internally in the batteries. And the components are fairly forgiving at these voltages and currents, but there are limits. There is lots of discussion on this here in Instructables.
Unrelated: I'm a teacher, and I did some light-drawing with my students for their classroom book. Would it be okay if I included a picture of your light pen collection? We have this explanation we wrote at the beginning of what light-drawing is, and your picture would help greatly!
I used 2 3V batteries and a 220 ohm resistor, but other than that, they're pretty much the same. The pictures came out great! Thanks so much for these!
but im a big fan of long exposure photography, and my modified flashlight isnt helping any. anyway, can i buy this somewhere?
so kudos to the both of you:P
The part number is NTE30070.
You don't buy from them directly but if you click on "Find Nearest Distributor", they list stores that sell their product. I bought mine from the local electronics store, but you can find many LEDs online much cheaper. Here is one site that looks promising - http://www.theledlight.com/led-specs.html.
I have a question though.. would Mrs. Stuart prefer a single pen with a switch that allows her to select one of several colors? together with the other switch that blanks off the light completely, when the light is not required?
Thank you.
Check out what some of the new breed are doing:
25 Spectacular Light Painting Images