Prompter Mag 🚦 Light Painting Vol.2

Like drunken doodling in the dark, but with way more impressive results

traffic, light painting, long exposure, light trails, night photography, light drawing, light graffiti, luminescent trails, motion of light, painted with light, light sketches, kinetic light art --ar 9:16 --personalize --v 6

Playing Picasso
with a Flashlight

Welcome to light painting—where you can wave a light around like a lunatic and end up with a masterpiece. Grab your cameras and maybe a beer, because we’re about to stumble through the luminous labyrinth of light painting!

deep ocean wildlife light painting portrait, long exposure light trails. night photography of a manta ray --ar 5:6 --quality 2 --v 6.1

Whoops, I Made Art

Light painting’s illustrious journey began, unsurprisingly, with a screw-up. Back in 1889, photographer Étienne-Jules Marey and his assistant Georges Demeny were messing around with long exposures when they accidentally created a light painting. Their blunder caught the motion of a light source, resulting in a trail that made people go, “Huh, neat!” and inadvertently spawned a new art form.

lush rainforest wildlife, light painting, long exposure, light trails, night photography, light drawing, light graffiti, luminescent trails, motion of light, painted with light, light sketches, kinetic light art --ar 9:16 --personalize --v 6

Picasso: The Ultimate Show-Off

Fast forward to the 20th century, and along comes Man Ray, playing with penlights like a kid with sparklers. But it wasn’t until the ever-modest Picasso got involved in the 1940s that light painting got some serious street cred. Picasso, always one for subtlety, created iconic light paintings that screamed, “Look at me, I’m not just a painter, I’m a wizard with a flashlight!”

lush rainforest wildlife light painting portrait, long exposure light trails. night photography of a tropical bird --ar 9:16 --quality 2 --v 6.1