Brent Lindstrom,  highly regarded Northern California Commercial Advertising Photographer was our presenter for the October 21, General Meeting.

 

He uses a unique method of lighting his subjects called painting with light.  He has been "painting" with light, using fiber optics, for 28 years.  His technique produces imagery that is much more sophisticated and emotional than anything produced using typical Studio Lighting techniques such as flash or LED Light Banks. 

 

Distinctive Product Photography Style

 

His methods create a highly sought after style that works especially well for food and wine enabling him to produce beautiful advertisements for restaurants and wineries as well as producing two cookbooks for Wolfgang Puck at his Spago restaurant in Las Vegas.

 

How He Does It

 

Simply put, light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera during the exposure.  Subjects can be lit by 'painting' the subject with light from outside the frame with hand-held light sources.  Many kinds of light sources can be used, from simple flashlights to more sophisticated devices like the Hosemaster, which uses a fiber optic light pen with many attachments to “shape” the light. 

 

Brent uses the Hosemaster as his primary tool for accomplishing his results.  The basic Hosemaster system comprises three inter-connected components:

 

• A metal casing (on wheels) that houses a 300 watt arc lamp, a cooling fan and electronic controls.

• A 4-metre (13-foot) fiber-optic hose that conducts the light from the arc lamp to the subject being photographed.

• An external shutter that allows multiple exposures on a single frame.

 

Brent's presentation was extremely well recieved by the attendees and was the topic of conversation at subsequent SIG meetings.