Lightpainting: G.Mach's two minute tutorial

A friend asked me about light painting, and I got a bit intrigued, having never done it myself. So I figured, it's 2am, what the hell, let's give it a go. I'm sure folks in the neighbourhood seeing the rave-ish lightshow through my window were thinking, 'That Asian kid is on THE ECSTASY again'... whatever. That's about as close as this middle class yuppie will get to being a misunderstood artist. So after two minutes of set up, and a couple tweaks, I doodled off a few random things with my 'laser' (flashlight) for funzies. I also made an attempt at the USS Enterprise, but it turned out more like a flying sperm whale, so I didn't post it.









Quick tutorial

Gear:
-Camera with self timer, long exposure mode, and (preferably) manual focus
-Maglite with front hood removed (or any small point LED light should suffice)
-Tripod or other surface to set camera on

Instructions:
-Set up camera on tripod and self timer for long exposure
-Prefocus on where you will be drawing from
-Turn out lights
-Start long exposure (I did between 20 - 30 seconds)
-Face camera and draw with light

I don't think this needs to be said, but just in case, you want to do this in darkness, or your effect will be greatly diminished.