How do you go about photographing and “light painting” a 350-foot-long dragon serpent? There were also some problems to solve. I’ll reveal all the behind-the-scenes secrets and more of how I captured this giant dragon under the stars.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, there\u2019s a lot happening in this photo. You\u2019ve got the enormous dragon serpent. You\u2019ve got long streaks in the sky showing star movement. And somehow, the dragon itself is glowing just enough to show off all the incredible scales and detail\u2014without looking garish. So, how did I pull it off?<\/p>\n
What on Earth is ‘Light Painting’?<\/p>\n
\u201cLight painting\u201d is often used loosely for adding light to a night photo. But technically, it means using a handheld light source to \u201cpaint\u201d during a long exposure. Your flashlight is the brush, the scene is your canvas, and you decide what gets lit and what stays in the shadows. Night photographers have used this for decades.<\/p>\n
Why do I love handheld light painting? Because it\u2019s fast, flexible, creative, and ridiculously fun. No need for light stands, no heavy gear\u2014it\u2019s just you and your light shaping the scene.<\/p>\n
How To Light a Dragon<\/p>\n
Photographing a sculpture this massive takes more than just pointing a camera. I\u2019ll walk you through the exact steps I took (and why my first attempt two years earlier totally flopped).<\/p>\n
Step 1: Choosing the Right Lens<\/p>\n
Most night shooters default to wide angles like 14mm or 15mm. They\u2019re great for showing off the sky. But here, a wide lens would have meant getting uncomfortably close to the dragon\u2019s head\u2014distorting the perspective and making the long body look tiny.<\/p>\n
Instead, I went with my \u201cwalkabout\u201d lens: the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f\/3.5-5.6G ED VR<\/a> (no longer available). No, it\u2019s not the fastest glass. But since I was shooting at f\/8 anyway (thanks to a nearly full moon lighting up the desert), it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n A longer focal length also compresses the scene, pulling in not just the dragon\u2019s body but also the mountains and stars behind it. Bonus: it makes the star trails look longer, faster. I say yessss!<\/p>\n Step 2: Nail the Vantage Point?<\/p>\n Lens choice alone won\u2019t save you. Placement matters. I needed a view that showed the dragon\u2019s full 350-foot length. Setting up on the right side of the dragon did the trick\u2014it gave me the entire body plus a sky full of negative space, space that the dragon could “look into,” perfect for those star trails.<\/p>\n I backed up, zoomed in to 40mm, and smiled. That felt right. The body was in full view, all the way to the end of the tail. It looked like a great composition.<\/p>\n Step 3: “The Face Is Too Dark!”<\/p>\n I could see that there was one issue to solve already. From the vantage point I had chosen, the dragon serpent’s head was dark. This was because the moon was shining from the right-hand side. None of the light was falling on the left side of the head.<\/p>\n I decided to light the head from the left side. I often do not do this, as I prefer my light painting to come predominantly from the same side as the moon so that it feels more natural. But I really wanted the face illuminated, as I was enamored with the detail and felt it was important since the face was such a dominant part of the composition.<\/p>\n When I finally began the sequence of photos, I went to the left side, shielded my light with my body so it wouldn’t show in the photo just in case I was in the frame, and skimmed my light on the left side.<\/p>\n How do you walk 350 feet down the dragon\u2019s body while painting it with light\u2014without ending up in the photo or blasting the lens with your flashlight? After some thought, I arrived at two techniques.<\/p>\n Trick 1: Stay in Motion<\/p>\n Night photographers have a secret superpower: invisibility. As long as you keep moving during a long exposure, you won\u2019t register in the frame. Stand still too long (10% or more of the total exposure), and you begin looking like a ghost in the photo. So I just kept walking, walking, walking…<\/p>\n Trick 2: Shield Your Light<\/p>\n To avoid shining into the lens, I kept the light (a ProtoMachines LED2 <\/a>I had just bought) in my right hand, shielding it from the camera with my torso. As I walked, I moved the beam up and down to paint the scales evenly. Problem solved.<\/p>\n Step 5: How To Create Epic Star Trails<\/p>\n Lighting was the tricky part. Star trails? That’s surprisingly simple. All you need is a good base exposure and an intervalometer to shoot continuously without gaps.<\/p>\n My settings: 2 minutes at f\/6.3, ISO 200 with a Nikon D610 DSLR. Each exposure gave me plenty of time to walk the dragon\u2019s length and add light. I fired off 14 frames in a row\u201428 minutes total. Then I stacked them in Photoshop for that sweeping star-trail effect.<\/p>\n