How “The Great Pumpkin” was created

Here is a quick tutorial on how my photo titled “The Great Pumpkin” was created. Hopefully this will give other Light Painting photographers some inspiration in using cardboard cutouts for silhouettes in Light Painting or Light Art Photography.

The Great Pumpkin Setup and creation steps:

1. Location: A dark warehouse with smooth concrete floor.
2. Black cardboard shapes were made for the eyes and mouth.
3. The cardboard shapes were suspended between two step ladders using fishing line and gaffers tape
4. Water was very liberally mopped onto the floor to get the reflection.
5. EL Wire (Electroluminescent) was used (coiled up) and waved around to get the green fog or smoke effect.
6. An Orange LED orb tool was used to create the orb behind the cardboard shapes to get the silhouette of the shapes.
7. A Green LED keylight was used by hand to draw the stem for the pumpkin.