Photography Life

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

  • Lens Reviews
  • Camera Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Compare Cameras
  • Forum
    • Sign Up
    • Login
  • About
  • Search
Home → Flash Photography and Lighting

One Way to Take Better Light Painting Photos at Night

By Spencer Cox 11 Comments
Published On April 13, 2024

If you’ve ever tried light painting for Milky Way photography, you may have run into some frustrating issues. Maybe your light’s color temperature didn’t match the scene, or the shadows and highlights somehow looked artificial. Or, perhaps you got a spotlight effect that didn’t cover a wide enough area.

I have to admit that I didn’t expect to be writing an article about light painting this year. My past attempts with it have always run into the issues I just mentioned – with the end result being photos that looked fake and artificial, distracting from the scene rather than adding to it. The only “light painting” that I would do with any regularity was to wait for the moon to rise and illuminate the landscape!

But seeing some amazing light-painted Milky Way photos from other photographers, it was clear that the issue was with my skills, not the technique of light painting in general. It’s been on my list for a while to improve those skills and add light painting to my repertoire. While I certainly haven’t mastered it yet, I did pick up a huge tip that improved the quality of my light painting tenfold. I’d like to share it with you today.

Light Painting Photography Example
Nikon Z8 + Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art @ ISO 1600, 15 seconds, f/1.4

The problems that I kept running into – incorrect color temperature, harsh shadows, and a spotlight effect – were all things I knew I could fix with fancy lighting equipment like gels and a giant softbox. But I have no desire to lug kit like that into the field, especially when I’m doing Milky Way photography in the backcountry. Usually, I don’t carry any special lighting gear apart from my headlamp and the LED on my phone, which are hardly ideal for light painting.

The tip that I’ll share today changes that. All the photos taken in this article were painted using the basic flashlight on my phone, no light modifiers or other gear required. It’s simple: Don’t point your light directly at what you’re photographing. Instead, paint in the opposite direction, and allow the landscape to subtly reflect its colors onto your subject.

Light Painting Reflector
Nikon Z8 + Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art @ ISO 6400, 15 seconds, f/2.8

I’m sure that’s a very basic tip that veteran light painters already know, but it marked a major improvement for me. When I went to Escalante earlier this year to test a pair of Milky Way lenses (the Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM and the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art), I found that this tip let me take better light-painted photos than I had ever captured before.

The idea is simple. Rather than shining the low-quality light from your phone onto the subject, why not turn the entire landscape into a giant reflector? It improves the color temperature and softness of the light, while also illuminating a greater area.

Here’s a comparison between shining my phone directly at the subject, versus shining it behind me to allow the landscape to provide a reflected source of light:

Shining Flashlight on Subject at Night
Shining phone flashlight onto subject
Shining Flashlight Behind Subject Light Painting
Shining phone flashlight away from subject (Nikon Z8 + Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art @ ISO 6400, 15 sec., f/2.8)

It’s a major difference! The colors, shadows, and overall quality of the light are substantially better in the second photo.

What’s more, this technique is very flexible and can give you different results depending upon where outside the frame you shine your flashlight. I found that when I aimed my flashlight at a large region behind me to the right, it acted like a giant softbox from that direction:

Light Painting From the Right
Nikon Z8 + Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art @ ISO 6400, 20 seconds, f/2.8

Alternatively, I could get a more focused effect by walking forward and pointing the phone’s flashlight at a smaller section of the landscape out of frame to the left of the subject:

Light Painting From the Left
Nikon Z8 + Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art @ ISO 6400, 20 seconds, f/2.8

It’s all down to the type of look that you’re trying to capture. The farther back you stand (and the bigger area of the landscape that you illuminate behind you), the larger and softer the light will appear in the final photo.

You could illuminate some pretty large scenes quite softly with this method. I can imagine shining a bright flashlight toward a tall hill or mountain behind your camera, allowing it to act as a massive reflector to illuminate the entire scene that you’re photographing. There are endless possibilities.

My ambitions at Escalante weren’t that grand, but I was happy to see a significant improvement over my previous light painting attempts. Granted, the landscape that I was photographing had the benefit of many different rocks, trees, and other features to act as reflectors. If you’re at a flat landscape with nothing behind the camera, I’m sure it would be less effective.

I hope that you find this tip useful for your own light painting endeavors!

Looking for even more exclusive content?

On Photography Life, you already get world-class articles with no advertising every day for free. As a Member, you'll get even more:

Silver ($5/mo)
  • Exclusive articles
  • Monthly Q&A chat
  • Early lens test results
  • "Creative Landscape Photography" eBook
Gold ($12/mo)
  • All that, PLUS:
  • Online workshops
  • Monthly photo critiques
  • Vote on our next lens reviews
 
Click Here to Join Today
 

Related Articles

  • night_tips_3
    How to Take Better Photos at Night
  • 1-1 magnification manual focus macro
    How to Light Macro Photos
  • Milky Way landscape photo
    An Easy Way to Compose Landscape Photos at Night
  • Stokksnes
    Taking Good Photos in Bad Light
  • Light Leak Title
    How to Fix Light Leaks in Long Exposure Photography
  • Good light at sunrise
    Finding Good Light in Landscape Photography
Disclosures, Terms and Conditions and Support Options
Filed Under: Flash Photography and Lighting Tagged With: Artificial Light, Light, Lighting, Milky Way, Night Photography

About Spencer Cox

I'm Spencer Cox, a landscape photographer based in Colorado. I started writing for Photography Life a decade ago, and now I run the website in collaboration with Nasim. I've used nearly every digital camera system under the sun, but for my personal work, I love the slow-paced nature of large format film. You can see more at my personal website and my not-exactly-active Instagram page.

guest

guest

11 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chris S.
Chris S.
April 18, 2024 11:11 pm

Great tip, Spencer! I’ll remember this during the next two months, when I’m chasing the stars through the South West. Softening and color adjustment of added light, in one easy step.

0
Reply
Oleksiy
Oleksiy
April 14, 2024 10:00 pm

You should’ve add some video of the process of at least single sample photo to clarify the logic

0
Reply
Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  Oleksiy
April 14, 2024 10:03 pm

Unfortunately I didn’t film any videos at the time, but it’s really simple in practice. If the subject that you want to light paint is in front of you, shine the flashlight on anything directly behind you instead. Basically just think of any other element in the landscape (anything not in your photo) as a potential reflector. Trial and error takes care of the rest.

0
Reply
David
David
April 14, 2024 5:15 pm

Several years ago I did a photo shoot with two other photographers using light painting. I thought the results were really awful. I returned the next day and shot the scene with the Moon still above the horizon. Then I waited for the Moon to set and shot a second image of the Milky Way. I combined the results and it was so much better than light painting.

I liked the result so much that it is now a metal print hanging on my wall.

I’ve used this technique several times because, sometimes, the object you want to light up is too far away.

0
Reply
Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  David
April 16, 2024 12:45 am

Glad you got such a good photo! I love using the moon for “light painting” – hard to beat how natural it looks. Even so, definitely give the trick in this article a shot next time. I think you’ll find better results than what you got with regular light painting!

1
Reply
bg5931
bg5931
April 14, 2024 4:39 am

Thanks for that! A simple but (from the looks of it) very effective idea that I will want to try at some point.

0
Reply
Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  bg5931
April 14, 2024 12:08 pm

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts once you try it!

0
Reply
Vital
Vital
April 14, 2024 1:08 am

Hi !
Not a good idea, use a huge heavy lens f1.4 (Sigma 14mm)
And close it f2,8 + Up ISO Level …
Better open values and backlighting, for example, with a phone screen.

0
Reply
Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  Vital
April 14, 2024 1:45 am

I didn’t choose f/2.8 because the flashlight was too bright, but to achieve sufficient depth of field due to nearby subjects in the foreground. I’m still happy to have shot these photos on the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 because it has more good qualities than just the bright maximum aperture (detailed in my review: photographylife.com/revie…-dg-dn-art)

For the first photo in this article, I did actually shoot at f/1.4. Of the f/2.8 photos, I think I made the right compromise for most of them due to how close the subjects were (although if I had more time, shooting at f/5.6 and using image averaging would have been better). But I probably did have a little more leeway on the photo labeled “shining phone flashlight away from subject.” In hindsight, opening up to about f/2.2, maybe f/2, could have been acceptable and allowed a lower ISO. Although f/1.4 strikes me as too far – it would have put the nearest plants at the bottom of the photo too far out of focus for my tastes.

Anyway, that’s why I chose the apertures I did here.

0
Reply
Ken
Ken
April 13, 2024 5:38 pm

Wait just a gosh darned second here. Those photos were taken with the *reflected* light from a phone’s flashlight?? I’m thinking now of the Milky Way photos I’ve taken where I could’ve pointed my phone’s flashlight anywhere but straight ahead and gotten much better photos. Sheesh! 🤦🏻‍♂️

5
Reply
Spencer Cox
Spencer Cox
Author
Reply to  Ken
April 13, 2024 5:42 pm

Yes! I didn’t use any other lights here, just the crappy LED of my phone’s flashlight pointed in the “wrong” direction :)

3
Reply

Learn

  • Beginner Photography
  • Landscape Photography
  • Wildlife Photography
  • Portraiture
  • Post-Processing
  • Advanced Tutorials
Photography Life on Patreon

Reviews

  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews
  • Best Cameras and Lenses

Photography Tutorials

Photography Basics
Landscape Photography
Wildlife Photography
Macro Photography
Composition & Creativity
Black & White Photography
Night Sky Photography
Portrait Photography
Street Photography
Photography Videos

Unique Gift Ideas

Best Gifts for Photographers

Subscribe via Email

If you like our content, you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive weekly email updates using the link below:

Subscribe to our newsletter

Site Menu

  • About Us
  • Beginner Photography
  • Lens Database
  • Lens Index
  • Photo Spots
  • Search
  • Forum

Reviews

  • Reviews Archive
  • Camera Reviews
  • Lens Reviews
  • Other Gear Reviews

More

  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Workshops
  • Support Us
  • Submit Content

Copyright © 2025 · Photography Life

You are going to send email to

Move Comment