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BY MICHAEL HUDDLESTON

The digital camera LED Laser Etching Trick is super easy to do and will create some truly creative photos. We’ve used it many times, and each time people look at the photos with a bewildered look, trying to figure out how the photo was created.

To the rational mind this type of photo tends to violate our sense of order. Cameras record objects, whether they are moving or stationary. Once we press the shutter, our brains are fully prepared to see whatever we took a picture of, frozen in time. What our brains are not prepared for is to see a photo where the camera has frozen and recorded the “track” of an object, which in this case is a simple LED light.

I have even had experienced digital camera owners look at an LED Laser Etching Trick and ask, “So you didn’t use video to do this?” When it comes to photos, most people think in a linear manner, and the LED Laser Etching Trick is cool because it forces our brains to think dimensionally.

If you try to explain the trick to someone without showing them an example, they’ll act like they understand, but in reality, they really don’t. On the other hand, if you show someone an LED Laser Etching photo, they will be instantly intrigued, no matter what level of photographic experience they might have.

You see, the fun part here is you don’t need to say anything; the response is always the same…

Wow, how cool!

And the next question is always..

How did you do that?

I was at a party the other day and pulled out my compact digital camera, then handed a small LED light to one of the guys and just said, “Would you help me with a trick?” I gave him a cursory explanation, and he was simply not impressed, period.

In his brain it was going to be a stupid photo of him standing there pointing the LED at the camera, big deal. That’s because his brain had been conditioned to the idea of how cameras work, no mystery here.

Until…

I showed him a photo that looked as though he had etched it in the air with a laser beam.

OK, so here’s a guy that initially was less than interested… Now he’s running back and forth to the camera to see his latest laser etching creation.

This guy went nuts! Once he saw how cool it was, he wanted to try all sorts of LED laser etching designs. Smiley faces, Christmas trees, the legendary Zorro “Z”, a crown, he went on and on. In the meantime, more and more people were aware of what was going on, and after a while literally everyone wanted in on the fun.
 

Here’s the trick

I used a point-and-shoot digital camera and a cheap LED key ring light, or in other words, no fancy equipment.

My camera was set to Fireworks, and since I didn’t have a tripod, I winged it and just held the camera as steady as possible.

NOTE: For more consistent results, it would be best to have secured my camera on a tripod.

Next, I went into a room that was fairly dark and handed the guy the LED light. I told him to point the LED at my camera, and for a test just do a bunch of “squiggles” in the air. This was to give him an idea of how much time he had to “write in the air.” Since this was a basic point-and-shoot digital camera, the only control I had was to set it on Fireworks. No manual controls, nothing, just a plain old digital camera.

However, I knew with the Fireworks setting the cameras lens would stay open longer than usual, long enough to record the LED light moving through the air. Now I know some of you will say that because it was handheld for so long, the background and the guy were going to be blurry.

Hey, all I was after was a neat looking creative photo; I really didn’t care if everything in the background was blurry. I just wanted to record the motion of the LED light.

So I held the camera up, told the guy to get ready, took a deep breath, pressed the shutter, and commanded the guy, “GO.”

Remember: no flash, just nice and dark.

It took a couple of test shots for the guy to see just how much time he had to write. As I said, though, once he saw the results, he wanted to try all sorts of designs.

Check out the resulting images:

[IMAGE 1] [IMAGE 2] [IMAGE 3] [IMAGE 4] [IMAGE 5]
 

Ideas to try:

• Use two different colors of LED lights at the same time. 
• Have 2 or 3 people with multiple lights at the same time. 
• Use a larger standard LED flashlight.

In summary

This technique is for standard point-and-shoot digital cameras with basic settings. If you own camera that has manual settings, you can hold your shutter open for much longer periods of time for more creative flexibility.

Either way, auto or manual control, this is just a fun trick and impresses absolutely everyone. Give it a go!

Michael Huddleston publishes the Digital Camera University website.