Equipment needed… Or that would make life easier.

• Camera capable of bulb mode
• Tripod
• Wide angle Lens (Tokina 11-16mm)
• Remote shutter
• 1 light source
• Some string, and a means of fixing this to the ceiling.

A maglite torch with the reflector removed will be enough to get good results with these. I use a home made light source. The reason I make my own light source is I found the light from the maglite to be to wide and bright for my liking. I use a 9V PP3 battery, 1 ultra bright warm white LED, a 220ohm resistor and a push lock switch. I connect the LED and resistor in series with the switch and the battery and dangle this whole arrangement, along with a bit of extra weight, from a string attached to the garage ceiling. I’ve found the LED easier to work with as you can add some black electricians tape to the side and make the light thinner. This string is approximately 4 feet long. I find this length of string to be about right to have a nice smooth swing…. But experiment, this is the beauty of these, its easy to make changes and see how it effects the outcome.

Place the camera directly underneath this arrangement with about 3 feet between the light source and the lens. I have the lens a wide as I can get it (11mm for my Tokina) as the physiogram is approximately 6 feet wide at its widest point.

For the different colours I use quality street wrappers attached over the light source with elastic bands.

Now the fun begins. Make the room you are in as dark as possible, switch the physiogram light on and start it swinging. Now open the shutter and sit back and let the light do its thing for a few minutes, close the shutter and check the camera screen to see what you have captured. As soon as you see that first one you will be itching to try it again.

You can now use a few little tricks to make things even more spectacular. Keep popping the lens cap on the camera and re-gell the light then you can start it swinging again. Trt altering the camera position between swings also. Add a bit of EL wire in the background or add some other colours or lights like in the shot above.

Just play and have fun…. This is a great way to make some great art at easily at home, and is far more fun than watching re-runs of top gear on Dave!!!

Making the Orb

I will speak as a right handed person here (just swap left for right if your the other way around)!!.

Have the orb string in your right hand at about waist hight and spin to your righhand side. I try and find something on the floor to focus on like a pebble or bit of Chewing gum, if all else fails drop a coin on the floor. I have this about 5 inches away from my right little toe and spin the orb head over this at all times. I try and look down over my right hand at where the orb tool head is passing then I start shuffling backwards in a circle trying to keep my right foot the same distance from the floor marker and passing the head of the orb tool over it too.

This is probably where I differ from most people as to complete a full orb you only need to go around 180deg, I do 720. Twice around. I have found this to be the key to making fuller orbs.

Another thing you need to concentrate on is keeping the string upright but if you go around at least 360deg then this problem masks itself out somewhat. I have found a good marker for the uprightness of the string is if you can feel it just touching the side of your head as its going around.

I use a lot of weight in my orb string to help the swing. And I spread the LED’s out quite a bit. All of mine are 10 ultra bright LED’s covered in different gels.

I will be posting a tutorial on the building of an orb string shortly.

Camera Settings

You will need a tripod, remote shutter release and a camera capable of bulb mode. For the ultra bright LED’s that I use for the orb string the best exposure is at about f7.1 / ISO200 with the shutter speed set for the metering level for the background exposure. If it is totally dark then the exposure is what ever length of time you feel like!