Every other n00b photog can figure out how to do light painting, but this video of a dude running around the city with a light bulb is very cutting edge.
Looks like nothing special at first. Just a few stop motion tricks here and there — with some hefty post, you’ve got visual gold anyone can do, right? Think again. It’s all live action — no stop motion, no still photos, and only a little bit of post touch-up.
We’ve had a video hustle and think they’re using two cameras with varying exposures, strategically placed on top of each other. But we’re just speculating. Regardless of what the trick behind the lens is, it makes our eyeballs happy.
you said:
> Just a few stop motion tricks here and there
and then you said:
> It’s all live action — no stop motion,
so which is it? stop motion or no stop motion?
imnsho, it is stop motion…
I-)
Very cool. I'm trying to figure out how it was done, the two camera idea makes the most sense, one camera records video, the other takes a long exposure still to capture the light path, then they are overlayed and the still is set to only allow the light to pass through, masking out areas until he touches it in the video. You can see in the first clip, light in the background passing through his body, and slightly glitchy as he highlights one of the car lights. So there must be at least two layers. All that said, really not sure, it's very clever and well executed. I don't have two cameras, but I may experiment later to try and figure it out. Great video.
Update. This method only kind of works. Alm ost perfect for lighting objects and simple paths, except they have paths of light moving behind paths of light, which I can't figure out. It's probably close, but not as refined as what they're doing. No idea, my mind's even more blown. Would love to see someone figure it out.