When Toby gave us a Twirling Demo at our home I immediately thought that this was just too good an opportunity to pass up on and that we had to do some long Exposure Photography with him twirling his Poi and Fire Staff. At the time I was experimenting a little bit with Lightpainting techniques using LED’s and flashlights, but I always thought that it was just a bit gimmicky. One day he introduced me to a new friend he made over here Tobias “Toby” Huehnlich, who is a very talented Fire Twirler. In 2010 my nephew Moritz from Germany stayed with us for several months here in Sydney. These are essentially extremely high-resolution time lapses which run for ten seconds and are designed to loop on Instagram.This is the story of how I fell in love with LightPainting Photography. RW: For the light-painting series with the Pixelstick, I made short motion loops from the many frames. PDN: What is your favorite part of the resulting images and why? It was also incredibly humid, so the car needed to be wiped constantly to avoid condensation from appearing. Speed, skill and steadiness of hand were crucial. Any disruption in the line would have been noticed easily, so I spent a lot of time experimenting and testing ways of making the smoothest visual. RW: The main challenge was the physical control of the lighting element and ensuring the trace of light was completely smooth and minimal. PDN: What was the most challenging part about this photo shoot? Every image is a long exposure of a few seconds and I was able to create the final mood of the picture by blending and merging specific elements in post-production. We were fine-tuning the color and timing of the light, as well as the duration of movement and shutter speed. It’s a long and thin LED matrix that enables you to program the color and timing. RW: We used a special lighting tool called a Pixelstick. PDN: Can you describe the lighting for this series of images? To achieve this, we needed to be in a very dark environment to create the illusion, so it was shot in a near-deserted area in California. We wanted to create the perfect “motion trace” as well as optimum lighting of the car itself. Each image is a composite and consists of multiple takes of lighting passes. RW: The vision really came from the idea of motion blur and linear elements which complement the shape of the car without distracting from it. PDN: How did you bring that vision to life during the shoot and in the delivery of the photos? RW: The concept was called “The Speed of Light.” The intention was to create the illusion of speed around a car by using long-exposed light trails in camera. PDN: What was the client’s creative intention with this hardtop campaign? Note: PDN’s Photo Annual is now open for entries for 2019. We asked Wu to give us a brief rundown on the lighting approach and creative concept for the campaigns. The hardtop images were recently featured in PDN’s monthly column, “How I Got That Shot,” and the convertible images were honored in the 2018 PDN Photo Annual in the advertising/commercial category. Shooting a recent campaign for the Audi A5 Cabriolet, Wu adapted the use of long exposures in desolate landscapes for photographing hardtop and convertible versions of the car. That series has laid the foundation for some of his more recent projects. Influenced by ideas of planetary exploration, the sublime in 19th century romantic painting and science fiction, Wu’s 2016 award-winning series “Lux Noctis” used drone lights to illuminate canyons and deserted landscapes, producing earthly scenes imbued with otherworldly qualities. Reuben Wu has been making headlines for the past few years for his innovative lighting. This image was part of his award-winning series in PDN’s Photo Annual 2018. Another image from Wu’s Audi campaign shot in Utah.
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