Looooooong Exposure & "Light Writing"

Have you ever seen an image that someone has taken of lights that spell out words or make shapes? i.e.

The first picture is backwards to show you that when doing this technique, you will have to flip your picture unless you can achieve writing the opposite way, which is in fact incredibly challenging.  

Moving forward, so what you will need is:

• flashlight, laser pointer, etc,
• tripod
• camera with manual settings
• darkness
• space

SO, to get started, set your tripod up somewhere flat and steady. For your camera settings, it's going to differ from place to place and by how long you want to expose the image. Usually though, you should have:

• A slow shutter speed (I would say anywhere from 4-30+),
• High F-stop (15-20+).
• High ISO.

To change these settings, check your manual because it's different with every camera. 

Once you have all that ready, put your camera on the tripod and have your subject stand a few feet away from the camera. Press the shutter button and have them "write" or "draw" whatever they want with the light source. Since there's a slow shutter speed, the light will get recorded and you'll have a drawing! Here's a video with more explanation. 

There are many other things you can do with slow shutter speed. This is called long exposure. You can use steel wool to create a waterfall of light. I recommend wearing a lot of layers because this is dangerous and hurts. 

Also don't attempt this indoors or near anything that can catch on fire for obvious reasons. 

Another cool thing I tried out was moving the camera around or zooming out when taking the picture with long exposure:

More examples of light writing & long exposure:

There's so many other cool things to do with this technique that I have yet to try, so do some research and try some other things out too!