Can we stop calling every star trail photo a 'light painting'?

I watched a guy at a meetup last month spend 20 minutes explaining how his 30-second exposure of the Milky Way was a 'light painting' and I had to bite my tongue because light painting actually involves moving a light source in front of the lens, not just pointing a camera at the sky.

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan28911d ago

Oh boy, I feel this one deep in my bones. I was at a dark sky park last summer and this fellow with a fancy portable rig kept going on about how his star stack was 'light painting with the cosmos.' I finally just walked away. Real light painting, the kind with flashlights or steel wool or a little LED wand, takes actual movement and creativity. Calling every long exposure of the night sky a light painting just waters down the whole term.

james9211d ago

Bet he calls stirring his coffee 'fluid dynamics art' too.