Try This: The Camera Trick for the Bored Photographer

The year was 2004, when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in the theaters. It was also the first time that one of the hooded, mysterious figures of Dementors, a wraithlike creature that sucks away your soul. The on-screen depiction of the Dementors Kiss still haunts millennials today. But it is also a brilliant case study of how one can rely on minimal set-up to create striking, streaked portraits.

While the article was not inspired by Harry Potter, I was certainly reminded of it while reading a post sent by Chief Editor Chris Gampat. On r/LightLurking, u/JulietMoore8 shared a screenshot by a photographer, who was relying on video lights to create streak portraits. So, we decided to give it a try and see whether the trick could be re-created, with a very minimal setup.

I don’t have a studio set-up, and I certainly don’t have video lights. However, during my practice as a photographer, I worked with what I have, and it certainly showed results. I knew I needed an additional source of light, so I first relied on my Godox iT30 flash, to photograph my brother.

What was my biggest mistake here? The use of a flash. While I was able to get some moody photographs, it is not exactly what the photographer had captured. There is too much light, and the streaks are fading away due to the clash of external lights. If I crop the image to some extent, the distractions are still there, despite the result being a bit better.

It was then that our Chief Editor suggested that I rely on the second curtain shutter. However, since I have never really used it (and couldn’t find that setting on the R7 for some reason), I decided to find another way. Instead of making my brother stand near the balcony, I relied on the dark walls of the room. And this time, I ditched the flash for a small torch.

Initially, I screwed up the exposure since the torch was really bright. I propped up the light on a stand next to the bed, or I would hold it in my hand, depending on where I wanted my light to fall. For this, my setting was ISO 100, f5.6, and the shutter fluctuated between 1.3, 1.6, or 2 seconds. The first second of the image goes into capturing the subject, while 0.3 or 0.6 might be the time you use to drag the light by panning the camera. The two portraits above, and the black and white cover image, were all captured at 1.6 seconds. The first second, I held the camera, and then utilized the 0.6 seconds to pan the device for the streak.

Once I got the hang of it for portraits, I wanted to see what one could use as their subject. Especially when they are not keen on making portraits. And here’s what I found:

The direction of light is one of the most instrumental things in capturing these images. The leaves, for instance, had its source coming from the top right, a nearby lamp. Similarly, the panda lamp managed to create a great streak on its own, thanks to the internal illumination. The last image was actually an in-camera double exposure where it appears that the replica of
Christ the Redeemer is caged in light bars.

If you have slightly shaky hands like me, it is better to rely on a tripod. I couldn’t take it out due to the rain, and so, I ended up spending a lot more time making the photographs. Once you have figured out the scene or the person you want to photograph, I would advise that you try different directions for the light streaks. In some cases, the left panning direction worked better than the right. Purely because the face was clear better the other way.

At the end, the best photographs are the ones where you enjoy the process of image-making. For me, these images may not be my best, but they were the ones that I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge thrown my way.