My light trails explained (kind of)

As you have probably noticed, a lot of my recent posts have been around light trails, I have been asked numerous times to explain how I do it and my processing.
They only thing holding me back from doing it is my ability or lack of it to explain.
However, I shall try to explain with 1 image as the techniques are more or less the same.
Some explanations,

Simple pendulum = Single piece of sting, any length, with a light attached to the end, with the other end tied to a horizontal pole

Complex pendulum ( this is tricky as there are any number of variations, I will give the one I used for this shot) (step 1) = 1 piece of string, 760mm long, tie both ends to a horizontal bar 80mm apart, the string should droop down to about 380mm in the center, (step 2) = 1 piece of string 700mm long with a light attached to the end, tie the other end to the center of the drooping string from step 1.
This is your complex pendulum, it gives the pendulum unrestricted movement perpendicular to the direction of the bar, but restricts movement in the direction of the bar.
The ratio of the length of the droop and the length of the attached string with the light matters, as this is what governs what type of pattern you will get. (experiment)

So, using the above complex pendulum ratio, and with my camera setup directly underneath, set on bulb mode, 2 sec delay, f14, iso 100, and exp of 119 secs. in a dark room.
In order to prevent the complex aspect taking over too quickly, I gave the pendulum a fairly decent elliptical swing.
You can clearly see where the complex aspect took over and the pattern changed,it continued to change roughly every 20 secs or so - 2 each time it changed, resulting in the wave forms, had I let it continue, the waves would continue to get shorter.

This is the resulting unedited image


_IMG2698sm by dr.shutter, on Flickr

A fairly decent example of what you can get,
Next step was to open in ACR, adjust contrast, exp, highlights, shadows, sharpness, then save.

Resulting in this


_IMG2698edsm by dr.shutter, on Flickr

Reopen in ACR, adjust colour temp and saturation, tweak levels again, save again.

Resulting in this


_IMG2698ed3sm by dr.shutter, on Flickr

Reopen in photoshop, I rotated the the image cc till it was kind of pointing to either corner, at this point I selected a portion of the top left corner to the edge of the last wave, and duplicated it 8 times, played around with levels and colour till I liked the look of it.

Which resulted in this


_IMG2698ed4sm by dr.shutter, on Flickr

Or this


_IMG2698ed5sm by dr.shutter, on Flickr


Some links that probably explain it better than I can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbzhxYTioM

This Guy has really made an art form out of it,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n13Ij4NSNI8

I hope this explains it, some what.

A couple more edits from that same original


_IMG2698ed32345 by dr.shutter, on Flickr


_IMG2698ed3qsm2 by dr.shutter, on Flickr

Ha ha I genuinely thought that too 😁😁😁

Thanks a very good explanation
Just a couple of questions what light did you use
And how far was the light from the camera before you started the swinging

These are some images from when I had the k3ii and no tripod,
the light is just a B and Q under unit light, it is too bright so i have it in an empty coffee tin with a hole punched in it to let the light out.

For that shot the light is about 3 or 4 ft above the camera


20171219_190957 by dr.shutter, on Flickr


20171219_191109 by dr.shutter, on Flickr


20171219_190943 by dr.shutter, on Flickr

Thanks I am thinking a LED or a small torch
Did you trigger the camera with a remote when you turn the room light off and trigger the camera to stop then switch the room light on

Hi Neill, yea that's pretty much it.
I had a desk lamp that I used so it was beside me. But I did have a wired remote for the camera.

Thanks again
How did you go about focusing

I lay down under the camera, all lights on, focus, then switch to mf so that focus is locked, then switch off main light, swing the pendulum, trip the remote with 2 sec delay and switch off the lamp, the 2 sec delay gives the pendulum a chance to even out and settle into its swing.

Just had a quick play but I think I need a better light source as the light is sharp

Dont be afraid to show what you ended up with, might be able to help or offer some suggestions.

Hi
Sorry for being a pain but have you a photo of the light you are using is it battery or mains the size of the hole in the coffee tin