1. LIGHT PAINTING
ALLPICTURES©ERICPARÉ
L
ooking through Eric
Paré’s portfolio, you can’t
help but be struck by
the ethereal landscapes
that act as a backdrop to his
beautiful light paintings, created
in collaboration with Kim Henry, a
dancer who usually appears in his
photographs. Speaking to Eric, it’s
clear to see that his enthusiasm for
the subject matter not only stretches
to creating new images, but also
helps others achieve the same look.
Eric is a French-Canadian
photographer from a small city
near Montreal. Having travelled
extensively, including a stint living
in Paris, he now has a studio on the
Plateau, a place he describes as ‘the
best place to live in Montreal.’
He first started experimenting
with light paintings a few years
ago, a technique that took him
some time to hone the skills of, as
he explains: ‘I learned mostly by
trial and error in a very
complicated environment. My first
six months of experimentations
were in a tiny 360° studio using 24
cameras. My goal was to properly
light my subjects without revealing
the surrounding cameras. Light
painting was the obvious choice as
the light is very concentrated on
the subject. However, using light
painting means long exposures,
and most of the time, blurry
pictures. Over a few weeks, my
average exposure duration went
from 60secs to 1sec, which I
achieved by improving my
movements and increasing the
power of my lights. This is where
I felt I really had something. I’ve
been doing 1sec light painting
since then.’
Eric’s collaboration with Kim
Henry started during the early days
of his light-painting projects. He
says: ‘She’s been part of all my
recent adventures, including the
workshops, performances,
conferences, camel rides and
food orgies.’
fantasticUsing the simplest means and methods,
Eric Paré collaborated with Kim Henry to
create light-painting images of outstanding
beauty. He talks to Amy Davies
Light
Signs of Light
Canon EOS 6D,
18mm,1.5secs at
f/5.6, ISO 200

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LIGHT PAINTING
GettingtheshotsTHE BIGGEST setback Eric and Kim face in creating these images is,
unsurprisingly, the weather. ‘Dealing with outdoor conditions is quite challenging
and can ruin a night’s shooting,’ says Eric. ‘But most of the time we manage to
get what we’re looking for, despite the wind or the cold.’
Although creating the light trails takes only a second, many of Eric’s final
images are merged to include star trails and create a whole scene. This takes
place after the main subject of the shoot is captured. ‘My favourite post-
processing is to include star trails that we shoot when we’re done with light
painting,’ says Eric. ‘We do this by taking a 30-minute-exposure picture. It’s
very important to keep the camera in the same place to simplify the editing’.
In the above image, called ‘Lighting Up the Desert’, we can see the
combination of light painting and star trails – and it’s one of Eric’s most popular
pictures. ‘It was such a fun image to create,’ he says. ‘To get the fluffy things
outside the circle, I filled my tube with sand prior to starting the movement. The
end result is magical, but we ended up having sand everywhere up to our ears!’
The tools for the job
Eric has an extremely extensive
set of cameras and has been a
Canon user for more than 10 years.
‘I own 55 cameras and 120 lenses,’
he says. ‘For my 360° work, I use the
Canon EOS 100D, which is the
smallest DSLR on the market.
However, when I travel, my kit is a
pair of EOS 6Ds combined with
14mm and the 35mm lenses. I
always shoot with the two cameras
side by side, giving very different
results because of the focal length. I
also use a small Canon PowerShot
to film the scene.’
Although you might expect the
equipment he uses to create the
light trails to be quite complex, it is
in fact extraordinarily simple, with
Eric often relying on ordinary
household items. ‘I use anything I
can find, including plumbing stuff,
papers, Plexiglass and toys,’ says
Eric. ‘But for the past year, I’ve
been using mostly a 4ft [1.2m]
plastic tube in which I insert a
flashlight/torch.’
The techniques Eric employs to
get the shots are also relatively
straightforward. ‘Camera settings
are nearly always the same when I
do light painting,’ he explains. ‘I use
ISO 400, f/5.6 and bulb mode. Bulb
mode is very important in my case
because I want to decide the
[precise] exposure duration for each
picture. That means I have a remote
control in my hand, and I hold
down the trigger button for about
1sec when taking the picture.
‘The photo ‘Signs of Light’ (above
left) is a typical example of my
work. To achieve this look I
‘I use anything I can find, including
plumbing stuff, papers, Plexiglass and toys’
Above: Signs
of Light
Canon EOS 5D
Mark III,18mm,
1.4secs at f/5.6,
ISO 400
Left: Ribbon
Light Painting
Canon EOS 5D
Mark III, 40mm,
1.3secs at f/5.6,
ISO 800
Light Painting in NYC
Canon EOS 6D,
35mm, 5secs at
f/10, ISO 800

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LIGHT PAINTING
shots at the right time. ‘We have
such a short window of time to get
the optimal results and this is
always the peak of the day, the
special moment we’ve been waiting
for,’ he continues. ‘I compare this
to when I was a kid and it was
fireworks day. There’s a huge build
up during the day, knowing there
is that special event at night. Then
it begins, it doesn’t last very long,
but it surely stays the highlight
of the day.’
The duo has some lofty ambitions
for further locations to create their
images. ‘We’ve been scratching our
heads recently with the idea of
shooting on the moon. Of course, it
will never happen, but dreaming is
free…’ If space tourism doesn’t take
off in the near future, Eric has some
other ideas that are (relatively)
closer to home, albeit almost as
remote. ‘On a more serious note,
we’d like to give it a shot in
Antarctica, where we’re sure to
find our usual feeling of infinity
and emptiness.’
Passing on the knowledge
Over the years, Eric and Kim have
curated and led workshops to help
students learn more about his
light-painting techniques, and it’s
clear how much his passion and
patience for the subject could be
inspiring to others wanting to
recreate the look. Unfortunately, a
busy calendar isn’t conducive to as
many workshops as perhaps Eric
would like at the moment.
‘We did a lot of workshops last
year, but our schedule does not
allow us to do much now,’ he says.
‘However, we’re running a learning
group on Facebook that’s starting to
become quite popular, with more
than 4,000 members so far.’ Eric is
thrilled by how other photographers
have responded to his techniques
and tutorials: ‘We’ve seen over 200
pictures of folks experimenting with
the light-tube so far! How amazing!’
Some exciting opportunities have
presented themselves to the duo
thanks to the recognition of the
light paintings. ‘We were invited by
Adobe not long ago to do real-time
360° light painting at Adobe MAX
[creativity conference],’ explains
Eric. ‘We shot about 1,000 people in
three days, creating more than
3,000 pictures. We are conscious
that we’re lucky to have
opportunities like this one and hope
to develop this even further with
some new concepts we’ve been
developing in the studio recently.
Also, our projects get us to be
invited by various festivals and
shows to perform our [technique]
and speak about [our] experience.’
For the moment, Eric is more than
happy to continue to work on his
light-paintings projects, but is
developing new techniques all the
time. ‘We continue to travel with the
tubes, as it’s probably the best thing
I can imagine for the moment,’ says
Eric, ‘But on top of that many new
things have been developed in the
studio recently where you can
clearly still see the similarities with
my style, but the light is not
made by hand.’
EricisaCanadianartist
whohasbeenproducing
light-paintingimages
since2013.Hisworkhas
appearedonCNN,MTV,
PetaPixel,TechInsider
andTEDxMontreal.He
hashostedaseriesof
talksandworkshops
acrosstheworld.Tofind
outmore,visitwww.
ericpare.com.Follow
EricandKim’sworkon
500px.comandlearn
moreabouthistechnique
onhiswebsiteorhis
Facebookgroup.
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The programmable Pixelstick comes
ready with a dozen different patterns,
but you can create your own for
infinite different effects with colours,
patterns, letters and more.
Light Painting Brushes
Deluxe Starter Kit
l $189 (£141)
l www.lightpaintingbrushes.com
This has a variety of tools all in one
box, including a ‘collapsible light
sword’ available in different colours.
Tube Guard
l Prices vary depending on brand
l www.amazon.co.uk
Take the lo-fi approach just like Eric
with tube guards, which can be
picked up very cheaply - they’re
designed for fluorescent lights. To use
them for light painting, place a torch
inside them, and you’ll get different
looks depending on the brightness
of the torch.
Light-painting
accessories
Why not give it a go
yourself with these handy
light-painting accessories?
stand behind Kim and quickly
draw the shape of light from
top to bottom. I was able to capture
a perfect circle by hand. I started
the movement exactly behind one of
Kim’s legs to avoid the overlap in the
circle. The stripe effect is achieved
by using two flashlights and setting
one of the two in strobe mode.’
The locations
Over the two years that Eric and
Kim have been working together,
they have travelled to some ideal
locations for this type of work.
Some places naturally lend
themselves to the shots that Eric
creates. ‘Our ideal is to find empty
spaces like deserts, beaches, lakes
and fields,’ he says. ‘So far we have
been lucky enough to shoot in
Dubai, Utah, California and
Mexico. We love reflections created
at night using our lights… if you see
some blinking lights far away, feel
free to come and say hi!’
The routine of finding good
locations and the actual shoot itself
is a fun process for Eric. ‘We do
location scouting during the day,
trying to find where the sun is going
to go down,’ he says. ‘Then, we take
it slowly until the blue hour comes:
we do some yoga, I watch Kim
dancing, we eat and plan the shots.
When the sun goes below the
horizon, everything is set up and
we’re ready to start. This goes fast
and we enter into a kind of trance
that lasts about 15 minutes. That
is the time we have where the
background is still visible and
my light painting is effective.’
Eric and Kim have to work fast,
having only a few minutes to get the
‘We’ve seen over 200 pictures of folks
experimenting with the light-tube’
The Floating Harp
Canon EOS100D,
18-55mm, 0.3sec
at f/9, ISO1,600
Light-painting Under the Bridge
Canon EOS 5D Mark III,18mm,
2secs at f/4.5, ISO1,600