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Why not add a personal touch to your Christmas cards this year - that's exactly what I'm doing using light painting images created specifically for this purpose. It's great fun too!

It's a little unusual for me to be light painting at home, but with the cold nights and wind we've had recently here in the UK it makes a welcome change to be photographing lights in the warmth. I set up a mini studio using a selection of Christmas lights as backdrops and got shooting.

Light Painting images really are something different from the usual scenes on the front of cards and you can personalise them with your own messages too.

How to create your own Light Painting Christmas Cards

Lets have a look at the "Glass of Wine" shot as an example.

Starting with the backdrop - This is a set of white Christmas Tree lights strung out towards the back of the scene. I wanted a soft focus for the background and didn't really want to go with black, which would be needed to hide the wires. My solution was to place a sheet in front of the lights, hiding all the wires and softening the lights while providing a nice white backdrop. I found a white towel makes good snow for foreground elements too.

Next came the baubles to add a real Christmassy feel to the image. These were simply piles up around a small box which the glass of wine sits on to ensure it stands out. Finally the glass was stood on top of the box and we're ready to get shooting.

The image was taken in the dark, except for the light emitted from the Christmas Lights. I set the camera to Bulb mode, f/11, ISO 100 and released the shutter.

The swirls of light are a single LED on a wire which i swung around the glass. I added a few more background lines of light using some LEDs mounted on a stick. To ensure the scene is properly exposed I added a bit of light using a torch, then finally shone the torch into the top of the wine glass to give the wine a richer, brighter colour.

Finishing Touches

Now you have your image you'll be wanting to make it a bit more card-like. Fire up Photoshop or your favourite design/photo package and create a new A4 sized document. You can either have a single fold to create A5 sized cards, or fold twice for sturdier but smaller A6 cards. The smaller cards allow you to print onto the inside of your card as well as the front.

Import your image and make any adjustments to brightness, saturation, ect. that you feel are required. Now position your image onto the new document. If you are going for a single fold you will want your image to take up half, or a large portion of half of the document. Add any text you want and hey-presto you're ready to print! If you have going for a double fold then the front will take up one quarter of the document. The front and back will be half of the document while the inside is the other half. Don't forget your message inside will need to be printed upside-down as it will be folded.

Now get creative and have fun creating your cards!

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Posted on: Dec 4, 2011
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