Book
Outdoor Light-Painting Photography: The Essential Field Guide - Eric Paré & Kim Henry
We didn't plan to write a book.
We planned to go outside, wait for the sun to set… and paint with light.
Over more than a decade of shooting in deserts, on beaches, and under the Milky Way, we've developed a technique that combines landscape photography, human performance, and hand-crafted light. Along the way, through YouTube videos, workshops, and blog posts, a community grew around it. And the questions kept coming.
This book is our answer to all of them. A deep dive into everything we've learned so far.
Who is this for?
If you've ever watched a light-painting image and wondered how do they do that? - this book is for you.
No prior experience needed. If you've never done long-exposure photography, the book walks you from zero: settings, gear, your first night out. If you've been shooting for years, there's enough here (advanced techniques, rarely covered scenarios, and reference material we've never compiled in one place before) to find something new.
Some people will read it cover to cover. Others will open to the scenario that matches where they're shooting that night. Both are the right way.
What's inside:
176 pages, built from years of night sessions around the world.
- Everything you need to get started or refine your craft: camera settings, the gear that matters, and how to configure your camera for the dark
- The fundamentals of working with light in the dark: insights into composition, light shapes, workflow, and tools.
- Detailed guidance for shooting in various environments: from black canvas to Milky Way, beaches, winter forests, star trails, auroras, and more.
- Advanced tricks, tools and creative techniques for when you're ready to go further
- Post-processing walkthroughs (we've never covered that before)
- Multiple reference tables for easy access on the field.
What's not inside:
- Our favorite camping cooking recipes
- Cat pictures (OK, there might be one or two of those)
There's a lot of technique in these pages. But technique was never the point. These are simply tools, and what you create from there is yours.
We hope this book shifts the way you see the night, and that shaping light by hand becomes your way of making magic.
Paint with love, paint with light.
Get your copy in various bookstores across Europe and North America:
UK / EU - Amazon UK · Waterstones · Blackwell’s · TGJones
North America (pre-order, ships end of April) — Amazon (ebook) · Barns & Nobles · Indigo · Les Libraires
More bookstores worldwide on lightpaintingbooks.com
A warm thank you to our friends Denis Smith and Darren Pearson for granting us the pleasure to feature their artistic profiles in the book, and to our dear Russell Preston Brown, Senior Principal Designer at Adobe Inc., for opening these pages with such a generous foreword.
Published by Ilex / Octopus Publishing Group · ISBN 9781840919257
Golden Book
We're building a space for everyone who has the book in their hands. We're building a space for everyone who has the book in their hands.
If you'd like to be part of it, share a photo of you with your copy (anywhere you are, any moment) along with a short note. We'll add it to a growing collection of light-painting creators from around the world.
It's our way of seeing where the book travels, and who it finds.
Coming soon <3
About the authors
We're Eric and Kim, a Canadian duo based in Montreal. For over a decade, we've been going outside at night with flashlights and plastic tubes, trying to make something beautiful happen in the dark.
That practice led to over 200 videos, many workshops, a worldwide community of light painters, and eventually, this book. Along the way our work has been featured by CNN, the BBC, and MTV, and we've collaborated with Apple, Adobe, Canon, and others. But what we care most about is still the same thing: getting out there, experimenting, and sharing what we learn.
When we're not in the field, we work out of our Montreal studio with a 176-camera 360° system and a 200-camera 3D scanner. A completely different yet complementary way of working with light, motion, and the human body.
A note for our French-speaking friends
You noticed the book is in English.
Our publisher, Ilex, is a London-based imprint specializing in photography books. That's the context in which the book was developed and published, and why the first edition is in English.
Will there be a French version? We hope so, partly because our mothers would love to be able to read it! If the book finds its audience, a translation becomes possible, but it's not a decision that's entirely ours to make, and we can't promise anything on that front.
What we can tell you is that there's a lot of home in what we share: the lakes, the forests, the mosquitoes, and ten years of practice built right here, in Quebec.
Thank you for being here.
Kim & Eric
FAQ
Why is the book only in English?
Our publisher, Ilex, is a London-based photography imprint, and the book was developed and produced within that context. The first edition is in English, as is standard for international publishing at this scale. We hope translation in other languages will follow if the book does well, but that decision isn't entirely ours to make.
Is there a digital or ebook version?
Yes. An ebook version is available alongside the print edition. Links are in the "Get your copy" section above.
I already follow your YouTube channel. Is there new content in the book?
Yes, quite a bit. The book goes further than we have in any single video. Post-processing is covered in depth for the first time. There are detailed shooting guides for environments we've never fully broken down on camera. And the reference toolkit (tube color guide, sparkler chart, settings tables, image review checklist) doesn't exist anywhere else. If you've watched everything, you'll still find things here that haven't been said before.
Do I need special gear or a specific camera to get started?
No. We've taught light painting to teenagers using a smartphone, a water bottle as a tripod, a cheap flashlight, and a sheet of paper as a light tool. You don't need expensive equipment to start. That said, the book is honest about what gear helps as you progress, and what actually matters versus what doesn't.