One-minute tutorial!

Put the flashlight inside the tube. Turn it on. Create art. That’s it.

Sometimes we make an 80-minute video to show everything we can about tube light-painting photography… but how much information can we squeeze within a minute?

This one-minute recap covers the essentials of our light-painting technique: everything you need to start creating your own images with just a tube, a flashlight, and a camera. We (quickly!) go over the gear, how to make an image, disappear behind your model, get perfect settings, and more.

We tried to answer to the questions that come up often like how to make stripes, to create a perfect circle (team salami) and how to shoot under the Milky Way.

Direct timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro – Put the flashlight inside the tube

• 00:05 The basics – What you need

• 00:15 Creating an image – How it works

• 00:20 Perfect settings – Exposure balance

• 00:26 Light effects – Stripes and sparklers

• 00:32 How to make yourself invisible

• 00:38 Milky Way setup – 8 s exposure, dim light

• 00:42 Perfect circle – The salami technique

• 00:48 Where to find the tubes

• 00:50 Single exposure – Yes!

• 00:52 Flash or no flash?

• 00:54 Lighting the subject – Use the tube

• 00:57 There’s more to learn

• 01:01 The cat’s name