Light-painting for Beginners: Getting Started with Analogue Photos

Happy New Year to all! This is a great time to start new projects and learn new things. For me, this includes getting to know the basics of photography, something I have not immersed myself in, even though I do enjoy looking at interesting pictures. My first camera was a fully automatic one, though not digital, let alone integrated into a phone. Still, it took away the need to learn the first thing about aperture and shutter speed. Aiming, shooting, and hoping for the best was my initial strategy. As cameras, and subsequent editing software, became increasingly sophisticated, my photos got better without letting my skills develop in the process.

Going Back to Old School

So now I decided to make up for this, and I got myself a camera where nothing is digital or even automatic: a Pentax K1000 Asahi. I was amazed to learn that they still make these things new, so no reason to look for one at the flea market. The old school photography store where I bought it also sold film, so I got two black-and-white rolls, one with 100, the other with 400 ISO. I started out with the 100 one, trying to put the theory of the photo triangle into practice.

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Here is all the basic info about the exposure triangle, condensed into one diagram. Nothing new for actual photographers, but for a bloody beginner like me, it was not easy to get my head around. Shutter speed makes good sense: at slower speeds more light enters the camera, but motion becomes blurry. The aperture lets one play around with the fore- and background, where a shallow depth of field also lets in more light. Finally the ISO, which is determined by the film, will add more noise to the images while making them also brighter. All good in theory, but how about the practice?

The Results of my First Attempts

With my first roll all I wanted to do was to experiment, trying out various settings with various motives. Maybe half of the 36 frames ended up as mere learning experiences, but along the way I did actually get a few gems out of it. After getting feedback from actual photography buffs, as well as random appreciators of good images, here are a few good ones I'd like to share with you:

The Cat and the Window

Focus is essential with any photo. No matter how good the settings are, if the image is out of focus, it's no more than garbage. But sometimes an inadvertent mistake can tell an interesting story. In this case, the picture's protagonist is the neighbor's cat from downstairs. But the cat is not what's most in focus here. It's my own window in the top left corner. So in a way, it is me, the observer of the cat, who this image is indirectly about, even though I am not in it myself.

The Trees Behind Tlaloc

Even though the motive in this image, the rain god Tlaloc as part of the water museum in Chapultepec park designed by Diego Rivera, is what prompted me to take this photo, what I like most about it is the background. I just love how all the details, such as the branches and leaves on the trees, come out so clearly. Apparently this happens when you use a higher F-stop on the aperture, letting in less light. In general, I've been told to have the light meter sit a bit below the optimal balance, to get more shades and contrasts.

Details in Reflections

In this pic I was simply playing around with the reflections in puddles. It was a cloudy day in the rainy season, and I was curious how much clarity I would get out of a simple puddle. The result simply blew me away. At a shutter speed of 1/125 and an aperture of f/4 I captured virtually every crack in the concrete, even up on the 4th floor. At the same time, the curb of the sidewalk looks blurry, just visible enough to let you know what it is.

Foreground and Background

In these two images I tried to focus on the near versus the far away, again with results that I'm very pleased with. The first pic, shutter speed at 1/250 and aperture at f/8, shows the weird tower (once again, part of Rivera's water infrastructure) with all its minute details. In the second pic, shutter speed at 1/500 and aperture at f/4, it's the cactus in the foreground that shows its needles, while the background remains blurry. What I most love about both photos is the way the agave plants came out.

For Motion Get A Tripod!

Finally, here is my best attempt at capturing motion. - I know, it's crap! The idea was to get a good image of Periferico, Mexico City's two-tiered inner city superhighway, with all the cars zipping by in a big blur. For that I got on the pedestrian bridge, and took a shot at an aperture of f/22 and a shutter speed of 1/8. As you might have guessed, this low speed not only got the moving cars at a nice blur, but it also gave lots of time for my hands to move, ever so slightly, ruining even the still objects in a blur. This is where a tripod comes in handy.

So, these are some of my first attempts of real, actual photography. I hope you like my pics. For any suggestions and criticisms I am always grateful. In my next post I am going to share the results of my first portrait fotos.