Light Writing in Lovers In Japan

[MS-Ferrari]

So I absolutely love the concept of the video for Lovers in Japan. I especially loved the effects with the 'light writing'.

 

I wanted to do it on my own as a little project for school and wondering if any of you know how to do it? I've done a bit of research on my own and came up with this: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-graffiti-with-lightwriting-102304/

 

The only hitch is that I have a digital camera and not one of those fancy ones. I can set the ISO just fine, but I don't have an option to set the shutter speed. I was thinking of a work around, like maybe Photoshop, but I don't know if that would have the same effect.

 

Any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[iPsy]

We're sorry, the page you're looking for has moved or is no longer available.

[Lalo5]

We're sorry, the page you're looking for has moved or is no longer available.

[Cobalt]

Ha. Ha. Ha.

 

Erm yeah your URL is wrong.

[ClairVoyant]

I love that video. I's amazing.

[Space Cadet]

I think they used CGI for the light trails, to be honest. Long exposures would work for still cameras, but video is another story. Look at the way the light moves and wobbles in the air- that has to be CG.

 

I wouldn't even be surprised if they actually had them draw on glass and then painted over it later. Notice that they all write with their left hands except for Guy (who is actually left-handed)? And that Guy then draws with his left when he's making swirls in the air? They flipped all of the shots with actual letters so that we could read them.

 

I think it looks a lot simpler than it actually is.

[MS-Ferrari]

I imagine its a whole different method for videos. Like editing it professionally with Adobe After Effects or something. I'm just aiming for that effect for still photographs. I think it'd look amazing.

[Space Cadet]

I imagine its a whole different method for videos. Like editing it professionally with Adobe After Effects or something. I'm just aiming for that effect for still photographs. I think it'd look amazing.

In that case, I'd read the manual- if you can adjust the iso you might be able to adjust the aperture and shutter speed (you can on my little automatic little digital camera but not without reading the manual). It's shutter speed that's going to get you the cool effects. Maybe you could borrow a camera?

 

Set up a tripod and use a timer so that you don't shake the camera, and take long exposures with a pen light or laser pointer or something. If you can't figure out how to manually set the shutter speed, you could lower the lighting in the room to force it to take longer exposures. Remember though, any movement, even from your finger touching the button on the camera will lead to blurring or camera shake. Take lots of pictures, try lots of settings, and you'll figure out something that works.

 

If you wanted to draw the light on a picture in photoshop, you would probably want to use the dodge (or is it burn? :thinking:) tool and a little bit of colour.