Now in the previous entry, I said that i am not truly familiar with the Olympus "Live Composition" or "Live Comp". Now i have starting to use it - but I am still not in alignment with how to balance the light: The existing room light vs. the added light via the light panting brush.

The camera makes an average basic exposure - but then via "live Comp" ONLY adds the highlights into the photo. The shadows will never get overexposed (like it would be the case with a normal long time exposure - where the light is accumulated in all areas of the image).

Here you see, that when I lifted the shadows inte RAW image, the reflection of my body and arms also came to the fore. I could either retouch them away, or trying to test with different "live Comp" setting, in order to give less exposure to the shadows, while the highlights will be unaffected (and get added over time).

The nifty things with Live Comp + Critter Torch are:

1) The existing light in the room isn't affecting the shadows (light isn't accumulated in the shadows) - so the room isn't entirely dark, and i can see where it go.

2) I can go to the camera and check for the highlights have been added in the photo. For example, I notice that i forgot one streak in the middle of the table. So, I went back, illuminated the missing section - and then the entire table was exposed.

3) The Critter LED light, has a function in which the illuminated buttons, turn off - and therefore don't disturb the image with light trails. Very good !

4) The Critter LED has a function in which you press the button, then the torch lights up. That way you can litteraly paint things, without that any light trails go into other areas of the photo (because the torch is still on). You simply release your finger form the button, and the torch turns off. Also very handy !!!

Second experiment

The image below - i still saw plenty of my outlines in the shadows (which I lifted) - so instead i used heavily Photoshop AI in order to get rid of anything that looked distracting in the shadows. As I said - i am still not sure exactly what I am doing when i set the parameters in the camera with "Live Comp". How the exposure time of highlights, vs the basic exposure in the beginning (first frame), affect shadows vs highlights.

It is for me a sort of trial and error type of experimentation, in order - hopefully - to get to know the feature "Live Comp" better. How this really translates into reality. As of now, I don't have a sense and can't previsualize how the various exposure parameters are actually affecting parts of the image (shadows vs highlights).

But it is an interesting, digital technology. I know now other camera brand that has this "Live Comp" feature. And Olympus had that for many, many years...

Light Painting Potential

I see a lot of potential in this kind of light painting - but realize at the same time, that it requires a lot of experimentation, in order to iron out kinks - but also making something interesting out of it - which isn't as heavily relying on just the effect itself. Which i mentioned earlier, can be boring over time.

I sometimes fail to explore the potential of light painting tools. Getting stuck in the effect, without ever to explore it any further, with finesse and more creative outcome.

Well, it is like "the Sorcerers apprentice". That kind of thing. Up like a sun - down like a pancake. In photography there is also an older saying "Kill your darlings". It is meant to people who hold dear the first experimentations as something fantastic - which it is personally - but then fail you develop things further. So, you get stuck in half-baked "darlings". They have to be "killed" in order for you to develop beyond the primary effects of a tool etc.

To refine those beginning skills into something greater, so to speak.

I fail

in that category quite often. Perhaps it has to do with that I don't truly have goals. My photography isn't dependent on anything, has no demands, no goals, no nothing other than that i myself, put up goals of interest. So, I am the sole energy source... which sometimes just isn't good enough for me to plunge into many greater things. I mean, i love to create in a small scale. To experiment - but I don't have any pull from the outside, that would make me do greater things. I am not even sure if I would want to.

So, I just do my one-man-show.

Wohooo.

In the long haul...

Albeit, I do tend to take up techniques over a much longer time. Going back to where i left off, and start to experimenting further. Sometimes this has lead to that i did develop finer skills. But it took many years, because I didn't work on them particularly much.

Like someone who in life, never get "to the fore". Not as ambitious to seek that kind of development beyond my local horizon. And sometimes I feel like i am too old for that. Yet, that is an extremely stupid "opinion", once shouldn't believe too much in it.

Another trap is the "I am the shit" kind of trap. When you overestimate your skills in an art or profession. Take it down a notch or two, if you are that kind of personality. Which we have plenty in the world, like grains of sand on a beach. It seems like mediocre "talents" are often most rewarded and hyped.

The current spirit of our times ?