I have already gotten a lot questions about last night's photo. Light painting is a very simple technique, there are just four requirements a tripod, a flash light, a camera that at least allows you to have shutter priority, and the ability to manually focus. If you have an DSLR this is not a problem, depending on which point and shoot you have it gets tricker.
For last nights photo I used my Nikon D50 on a floor mounted tripod, with a 50 mm 1.8 lens. If your camera supports full manual mode you want to start there. I chose a shutter speed setting of 30 seconds, and an aperture of F9. The longer the exposure the better for light paining, you also want to choose a middle aperture so the flash light does not give off too much light.
I found a neutral spot in the room, that I could focus on easily. Turn of the lights. I triggered my shutter using a remote, but you can just hit the shutter button. I turned on my flash light and twirled in front of the lens. The key here is to shine the flash light in front of the lens. If you do it from behind you will just illuminate your background.
A long exposure such as 30 seconds allows you to move in and out of the frame to create ghost like effects. Flashlights can give off different kinds of light. I used an LED flashlight for these shots.
Just remember to experiment with different settings, the beauty of digital is you can reshoot it as many times as you would like. Last night was the first time I ever tried light painting, and I got good results after my second try. Give it a go.
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