Light Painting Photography In Bullet Time

Photography Tips

Upon his return from a 3-month excursion filming in China, photographer Richard Kendall decided it was time to get back into the studio and start working on some photography experiments. One of those projects was creating a collection of very forward thinking light paintings. Take a look at the video below and see if you can figure out Kendall’s technique:

The effect Kendall used is a technique called bullet time. In still photography, bullet time is achieved by surrounding the subject with mulitple cameras that are mounted to a special ring shaped rig (often referred to as an array). The cameras are then set to fire either simultaneously or sequentially. Each of the photographs are then made into a timelapse so they create a super slow motion scene. Kendall used a half circle rig for his photo shoot, which required the use of 96 DSLRs. If you look closely in the video, you can spot the rig Kendall used.

Light Painting in Bullet Time Using an Array of 96 DSLR Cameras

Considering how many cameras it takes to pull something like this off, it’s a pretty expensive experiment. That being said, the results are absolutely worth it.