Hello my fellow forumers. One of the more recent hobbies I've become interested in has been Photography, and as such, I've learned quite a bit about how cameras work and how to achieve different effects with them. Here I wanted to take my knowledge and show you all how to photograph lightsabers the way you want to. I've seen a lot of pictures on the forums of sabers with that white core in the middle of the blade and very few of how the blade actually looks. In this topic I'm going to give you all tips on how to capture different effects of a lightsaber blade and the camera settings used to create those effects. Mostly this is going to be a comparison of pictures so you can see what settings are causing what effects. To create the effects you want, it is best to have a camera that has a Manual Mode, which allows you to adjust ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed settings. A camera with such functionality will give you the most control over your images and, in turn, the best results. These pictures were taken with a Nikon D7000. Let's get started.
Note: All shots were shot in a dark room where the only light source was the blade itself.
The most standard photo I see is a picture in which the saber looks almost white with a bit of color coming off the edges, kind of like this:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 10 seconds, ISO 800
Now note, the saber in this pic is supposed to be blood red (as it looks in person), but the camera is taking that color and turning it a very bright orange color because of the intensity and the sensitivity of the camera sensor. Now granted, this image is still better than most in terms of capturing the true color, because most cameras take that orange and make it completely white. At least here there is some color left, even though it is the wrong color. Also, you'll notice that this picture is not sharp at all. That is because a Shutter Speed of 10 seconds was used, which captures even the slightest bit of motion, either from the camera or from the subject. As I can't remain completely still when breathing, this image turned out very blurry. This is something we can use to our advantage, which I will show a little later.
What happens when we don't want that white core, or in this case orange core to the lightsaber? Obviously we have to adjust our camera settings. I have found that by reducing the Shutter Speed, one is able to get a bit closer to the actual color of a lightsaber, because light is not hitting the camera sensor as long and therefore not exposing the shot as much.
Here is a pic with a slightly reduced Shutter Speed:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 5 seconds, ISO 800
You will notice that this pic has almost the same blade effect as the previous shot, however if you look to the edges of the blade, there is a bit more red creeping in, as well as a hint of red near the top of the saber. You'll also notice that the image is a bit sharper. This is because the Shutter Speed has been reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, which means the camera sensor is being exposed to light in a shorter amount of time. This causes the image to be sharper because there is less time to introduce motion blur to the image, as well as providing more of the true color of the blade.
If we drop the Shutter Speed even more, you will see this effect happening again:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 1/8 seconds, ISO 800
Notice in this shot that there is significantly more red appearing in the blade and the overall shot is much darker. Again, this is because light is not being exposed to the camera sensor as long, which makes the image darker and does not allow the same amount of light to be exposed for the blade, giving us a truer color for it.
If we take this effect even further, we can now achieve the true color of the blade without that inner core of light:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 1/10 seconds, ISO 800
As you can see, all we are doing is decreasing the Shutter Speed of these shots, which in turn reduces the amount of light exposed to the camera and gives us more of the true color of the blade each time. In this last shot, you can see the blade as I see it with my eyes, without that inner core effect that is usually present from a camera, be it white or orange. You will also see that only the blade is visible in this shot. Again, this is because the Shutter Speed is fast enough to allow only the light from the blade to be shown and does not show the light hitting the background or myself, which was right next to the blade.
What we've learned: The slower the Shutter Speed of the camera is, the more of that inner core will be visible and the more motion blur will appear in your images. If you do not want either one, making the Shutter Speed faster will both reduce the amount of blur and give you sharper images, as well as give you an image with a more accurate blade color.
Now, if we take this concept the other direction, we can them experiment with creating what is known on the forums as "light paintings". Light paintings are when the Shutter Speed is increased to allow light to hit the camera sensor for a longer amount of time while moving with the saber. So in essence, we are taking that evil motion blur from before and making it work to our advantage now.
Here is a basic light painting shot:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 8, Shutter Speed 3 seconds, ISO 800
As you can see, with a Shutter Speed of 3 seconds, any motion created during the shot will create this effect in which the saber blurs. The more you move during the shot, the more motion will be captured.
Here is a second shot using this technique:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 10, ISO 800
In this shot, I increased the Shutter Speed by 7 seconds, which allowed more time for motion to be captured. As such, you can see that there is a great deal more motion in the shot and the effect is much brighter. This is an important point to remember. With a longer exposure time, any motion REPEATED in the same area will appear brighter than if that motion is repeated only once. This means that if I spin a saber once through the air in a specific area during a 10 second exposure, you're only going to see the motion created from that one swing, which will probably be quite dark. However, if I were to repeat that spin in the same area over the course of those 10 seconds, the final image will appear much brighter because more motion has been captured from each swing. This means that you pretty much have total control over what areas are brighter than others when doing a light painting using this technique.
Finally, here is an image in which a saber staff is being swung REPEATEDLY in the same pattern over the course of the shot:
Settings used for this shot: Aperture 22, Shutter Speed 10, ISO 2500
Now for this shot, the settings I used were different because this was shot on a different day. However, the same concept is still at work because the settings balance out to give roughly the same effect. A Shutter Speed of 10 seconds is still being used in this shot and it is capturing every motion I introduce during the exposure. I was using a saber staff and doing a series of two spins repeatedly during the course of the shot, which gives the overall shot a very bright and artistic look to it. The saber seems to be dancing around me because the camera sensor is capturing each motion as it moves around my body. This is the concept for creating light paintings.
I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson in Saber Photography and I look forward to seeing how you all use it. Perhaps we will start to see pictures with more of the true colors of the sabers with less of that white core, even though that is still a nice effect in and of itself. Cheers!
