This frame-by-frame exercise and technique is very popular in Japan. The Japanese refer to it as pika pika. They also call it lightning doodle projects. Often, large numbers of people get together to create wonderful, fresh, and vibrant images of light painting in front of the camera frame by frame.
So, I would like to dedicate this exercise to the people of Japan for their great sense of unity, community, and creativity.
This particular exercise requires a few small props, a dark room or environment, and a dslr camera, like a Canon 5D or a Nikon D-7000. It is important to have one of these digital still cameras because you have a lot of control of the iris, focus, and most important, the shutter speed. The shutter speed of the camera is the critical element in this process. As we saw in previous chapters, the longer the shutter speed, the more you can "smear" images and make moving objects leave a trail of light and color behind them. This is how pika pika works. The camera cannot be hand held or have the possibility of being bumped during this process, because your whole image will be smeared and impossible to read. A tripod is, once again, the anchor to making this exercise work. The use of a cable release or a self-timer from the camera’s options might be worth considering. Touching the camera to release the shutter risks a slight movement of the camera during the shooting, and the possibility of smearing the whole image is increased. This is why a remote cable or 2-second shutter time-release option is absolutely critical. If you are confident and have a delicate touch then maybe you can take this risk, but I warn against this approach.
When you shoot an animated light loop, you have to keep in mind that the registration of one frame to the next is difficult to control, because there are no registration guides. Even using a capture software program that has frame-to-frame comparison is impractical, but we consider the possibility of using it in this exercise. You are virtually drawing in three-dimensional space, with only your sense of frame-to-frame placement as your guide. As a result, these light paintings have a very kinetic quality that is similar in appearance to painting or scratching directly on film stock. But, you can do a few things to help with your drawing.
Besides the camera equipment and dark space, the person painting the light has to wear dark clothes. This person is slightly apparent in the image, which adds a special quality to this technique, but we are going to minimize the light painter’s image in this exercise. Our goal is to have a star rise in the frame and then burst and disappear in exactly 15 moves. The film then is looped, so there is an unending rise of stars that burst apart. You want to make sure that the looping has a fun quality that can be seen over and over again in an appealing manner. Let us go back to Chapter 3 and use the star guide illustrated in that light painting description. This guide will help keep the star imagery consistent for the first several frames of the exercise.
FIG 4.A The star guide along with two small flashlights.
The star guide should be stabilized and placed very carefully in each frame as it rises into the composition. This is extremely difficult if you hold the guide by hand with the long camera exposure, so we use a stand like a C-stand to hold the star guide. The stand should be "blacked out" by putting black gaffer’s tape on it. The C-stand should also be moved to a different position every frame, so that it cannot be seen over a sequence of frames. This can be carefully orchestrated while continuing to raise the star in the frame.
Fig 4.B The c-stand holding the star guide and blacked out with tape.
Set up your camera with a wide lens, like 24 mm or 35 mm focal range, on your tripod at about shoulder height. Let us say you chose to be in a dark room that is mostly empty. Make sure all lights are off, although you may want to have a working light that you can turn on and off as you shoot. This light allows you to place the stand in the right place between shooting frames.
This is when you might use your frame grabbing and comparison capability from the computer. You can shoot a frame with the working light on to see where the stand and star are in the frame, turn off the working light, perform and shoot the light painting, turn the working light back on to place the stand and star in the next position, compare the new placement with the old working light stand and star placement, turn off the light to perform and shoot the next light painting, and so forth. The working light has to be off during the shooting. You need only about eight frames of the rising star before it bursts, so that is the only period that you may need the working light setup to measure the placement of the star and stand. If you are using a program like Dragon to control and shoot your frames, then you can eliminate the working-light shots from the sequence later in postproduction. This whole process can be done without the frame comparison capability and no computer. If you choose to just shoot on a flash card in the camera, then think about other means of tracking the star guide placement. This could be by eye or tape on the floor or markings on your stand to guide it as it rises into frame. The problem with the computer is that it emits light in the dark, which can reveal more than you want. This can be resolved by putting a cloth over the screen for each exposure. Programs like Dragon have a "blackout" feature that darkens the screen during the exposure. I leave this option up to you.
When you place the star on the stand in each position for each frame, you need to light paint. You must have a light source, and that should be a small LED flashlight. You can add or tape a colored gel on the front of the flashlight if you want color. Some small LED lights have color built into them, and that might be your best choice for colored light. Each time the shutter is open for the exposure you need to quickly and precisely (as you can) trace the outline of the star from behind the star allowing for some of the light to spill over and shine into the camera. It is worth practicing this a few times to see how long it takes to trace out the star. That time should be your ultimate exposure shutter speed. You need to take some practice shots to find the proper settings for your camera and make sure you have the right overall exposure for the light.
I should say that this exercise is best executed by two people, although you could do it yourself using the self-timer option on your camera or a wireless remote. Your shutter speed should end up being somewhere between 3 and 5 seconds long with an adjusted aperture to compensate for the long exposure.
Once the star hits its zenith in the frame, you need to remove the stand and star from the frame for the next shot, which is the beginning of the burst.
You need a memory of where in space the star was in its last position (if you are not using a frame grabber). When you are ready to shoot the beginning of the star burst, think about how the light from your LED flashlight should disperse and work from that central point of the last star’s placement. The first explosion could be a bright powerful beam that you point directly at the camera, and the sequential frames are the dispersing light trails. You could use different colored lights for a fireworks effect as the lights get farther out in the composition for each shot.
Fig 4.C An example of options for the beginning of the burst.
This burst can happen over five or six frames, and each sequential frame of the burst should be more spread out from the last position and smaller in size.
FIG 4.D An image from the end of the burst.
Try to finish your small light spots for the end of the burst around Frame 14. That way you have one black frame to complete the 15-frame loop. If you use Dragon, then make a Quicktime movie of the sequence at 15 fps. Once you have this, you may have to remove the working light frames to show only the light painted frames. Set the Quicktime to "loop," and there is your animated light loop. If you are using just a flash card with no frame grabber, then download your files onto a computer. You can place them in a folder and import them into Final Cut by setting the Still/Freeze Duration in Final Cut ^ User Preferences ^ Editing to 00:00:00:01. You can also put the frames in an "image sequence," if you have Quicktime Pro. Make your loop once you have exported to a self-contained Quicktime movie.
Fig 4.E Five key positions for the animated light loop star burst.
