Increase your Kid’s Creativity with Light Painting

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Feel like you’re always looking for new ways to nurture your kid’s creativity? We have an idea that should keep you going for a while. Increase their creativity with light painting! Before continuing, I would just like to mention that even though I’m an adult, I absolutely love painting with light. In fact, I’m pretty sure anyone who gives it a try will love it, adults and kids alike.

What is light painting, you ask? It is a photographic technique done in low-light conditions. In order to create ‘light paintings’, you have to move a light source while taking a long exposure with your camera. You can write words with light or make light drawings; the only limit is your imagination!

I’ve actually mentioned light painting in my previous article 9 Best Kids At-Home Birthday Party Ideas. Even though light painting might seem complicated, it’s actually quite simple.

What you need:

• A dark room, aka any place in your home that has either no natural light or a very minimal amount of natural light.
• Flashlight, string lights, coloured lights, lasers… any light-emitting object that you have!
• A camera that is capable of low shutter speed or simply get an app on your phone. Here’s an android option and an iPhone option.
• Something to stabilize your camera or phone. This could be a tripod or simply a table to rest it on. The point is that your camera or phone stays perfectly still.

What you do:

If you’re using a camera, set it to manual mode and apply the following settings:

• ISO = 100
• Aperture = between f/8 and f/32
• Shutter speed = anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 seconds or in bulb mode

Now that you’ve adjusted your camera settings, all you need to do is go into a dark room and place your camera on a tripod or a table. If you’ve decided to put your shutter speed to 30 seconds, can press the button and then run in front of the camera and have fun waving lights in front of the camera. If you’ve decided to put your shutter speed in a bulb, you or a friend can hold down the button while the other person waves a flashlight and creates art in front of the camera.

Light painting can be a little more difficult for children to understand. However, with practice, it will help them develop their spatial awareness. I suggest you start out by letting your child wave a flashlight however they want and so that they can see what kind of photo they can make. Thereafter, you can have them practice what they’d like to make on a piece of paper. They can make a star, a heart or maybe a short word. When you think they’re ready, let them try it in front of the camera.

In a nutshell

Light painting is an excellent way to have kids use their imagination and develop their spatial awareness. As you can see, it’s quite a simple technique, and it’s easy to set up at your home. All you need is low light, some flashlights and a camera that can be put in manual mode or a cellphone with a slow shutter speed app. However, if you’d rather someone else takes care of the activity, My Studio Party offers a Light Painting Package for kids’ parties! It’s one of our most creative packages, so much so that it was featured in the Montreal Families magazine article: “New birthday package lights up the party”. In any case, we want to hear from you so be sure to share your thoughts with us here and tag us on your light painting images on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter!