Luke Mellor Photography: Patrick Rochon

Patrick Rochon is one of the most famous 'light painters' going. Though, to my displeasure, as famous as he is he is not famous enough have himself his own Wikipedia page. With over 19 years of photographic knowledge under his belt, with him specialising in light painting, he has established himself well within the photography world. His work is so well known and admired in fact that he was the first prize winner at the Nikon photo contest in Japan, and also has done work with many magazines and companies such as Honda and Toyota who wanted him for his unique take on light.

What is light painting?

As we all know, when you are using the wrong shutter speed, you don't achieve the photo you wanted. Whether you use too fast a shutter speed and you don't expose the film or sensor to enough light or you use a shutter speed that isn't fast enough and you find that your photo is blurred. A slow shutter speed captures more light. This is why you find that the images are blurred and brighter. Though this is an aspect of photography that can deem to be troublesome and can take a long time to master the understanding of the settings. The blurred and extruded lines become interesting to some photographers however and are used to their advantage like a paint brush as they use lights to create drawings. By using a smaller aperture you can capture less light, and by using a longer shutter speed you can having lights extruded. Settings of mine and Patrick Rochon are shown below for example.

“My medium is LIGHT (moving lights) trough various media.I mainly use photography and video to capture the movement I create with lights. I started light-painting, combine with photography doing long exposure in the dark, in 1992. In 1999 I started creating videos and performances with lights. Then with friends we created a multimedia group and we built costumes of lights. Using video feedback, we performed by ”light-painting” on a giant screen creating a new visual experience.” - Patrick Rochon