“Light Scythe” Lets You Do Huge Light Paintings

For those unfamiliar with light painting, it’s a photographic technique which uses long exposures and a light source, to “paint” the photo with light. The photo above is a great example as I am sure those who are unfamiliar with photography or light painting may have thought that “The Light Scythe” words that appear, are probably a result of photo editing. In reality it was created using a camera, the use of long exposure settings and a light source, which the guy in the photo is holding in his hand.

The creator, who calls himself the Mechatronics Guy, made use of only a 2m long programmable LED strip inside an acrylic tube, which is controlled from a small receiver and battery pack. A laptop computer with WiFi capabilities is also used, so all the user would have to do is input the image they desire into the computer, and through the use of Arduino code, the LED strip will the emit light at whatever rate is necessary in order to recreate that picture. It’s sort of like how a printer works, except instead of ink, you use light.

If you’re interested in creating your own “Light Scythe”, you can head on down to the Mechatronic Guy’s Google page for more information regarding the hardware and software necessary.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gadgets, Photo-Video
Tags: arduino, Camera, photography