Light Painted Senior Photography

We are one of the only photography studios in the country that offers light-painted senior photography. So it’s pretty safe to say that it’s become a photographic specialty of ours!

A cool father and son light-painted photograph with a Subaru WRX and Piper Dakota N2904R. Image was created at the Crystal Airport in Crystal, Minnesota.

Here’s Eddie and his Dad, Rudy, in their unique father & son light-painted senior portrait!

Back in 2017, after attending a week-long class on light painting photography, Michael was hooked! The creativity that goes into making these unique images was addicting! Upon returning to the studio, he and Joannie began creating light painting projects.

To refine his technique, he has returned for week-long refresher classes on several more occasions. He’s developed a light painting style that’s all his own.

Now, after creating well over 100 light painting projects, Michael is one of the finest light painting photographers in the United States. That’s a big bonus for our high school seniors, because they can get senior photos that aren’t created anywhere else!

Stunning light painted senior photography composite created at Elm Creek Chalet at sunset and in-studio on green screen.

A little green screen magic combined with light painting!

What Are Light Painted Senior Photos?

Since most people have never heard of it, they usually ask us, “What is light painting?”

Well, the actual photographic process is done in the dark. Usually, the image is set up about an hour before sunset. Since all of the images must line up perfectly, the camera mustn’t move once the overall image is all set up.

Our senior’s portrait is then created at the beginning of the light painting process. As you can see in the image below, Michael used multiple strobe lights to create Lindsey’s senior portrait in her light painting.

The behind-the-scenes "set-up" for a unique light painted senior photo. Image was taken at Lichtscheidl Arena in Forest Lake, MN.

The behind-the-scenes “set-up” for Lindsey’s light-painted senior photo.

Once the senior’s portrait has been created, all of that lighting gear is removed. Then, once it’s dark enough, Michael will start applying light to the entire scene, one small area at a time, specifically to bring out all of the details. Lindsey’s cool light-painted senior photo is below.

Light painted senior photo with the Zamboni at Lichtscheidl Arena in Forest Lake, MN.

“Let’s Play Hockey!”

During the light painting photography, our seniors, and sometimes their parents too, become our assistants! Since we don’t want the camera to move during all of this, we trigger the shutter remotely with our iPad Pro. Our seniors are our “trigger person”! It’s fun to watch them once they take their first image of Michael applying the light, and then a few seconds later, it shows up on the screen. The first reaction is usually, “Wow!”

Typically, we take a couple of hundred images for a light painting. Then, upon returning to the studio, Michael takes the best parts of many of those images and combines them into the final one-of-a-kind light-painted senior photograph.

More Light Painted Senior Photography

After every light painting project, Michael writes a story about it, and it goes up on our blog on this website. So if you search for “light painting” in the site’s search field, you’ll discover dozens of stories about how these one-of-a-kind projects came to be.

Here’s a list of light painting projects that we’ve created for some of our seniors. Please click on the links to discover more about each project.

Each of the stories includes before and after images. Many of them also include some of their traditional senior photos as well.

There’s also a “Build Video” of each project linked from our YouTube channel. Here’s one of those:

There’s More, Much More!

In addition to light-painted senior photos, Michael and his wife Joannie have created light paintings of many other subjects. So much so, that they now have a website that is specifically for their light painting photography! Here’s a list of the subjects that can be found there: