Simple Light Painting Bar Build

[SkyWodd] took the easy route when it came time to build this light painting bar. But he was still met with great success. Thanks to his well-documented work you should be able to throw this together for yourself in about an hour.

The idea here is to build a full-color display that will draw a picture in a long-exposure photograph. We’ve seen the concept used with 64 discrete RGB LEDs, but there’s almost no soldering to be done with this project. Instead, [SkyWodd] used an addressable RGB LED strip. It has 64 pixels, all taking commands via the SPI protocol. This helps keep the number of microcontroller connections to a minimum. He lashed the entire system onto a long hunk of wooden dowel and grabbed a camera.

You’ll need a DSLR as each image needs to have an exposure time approaching 10 seconds. One thing to note is that it may be best to leave the LED bar stationary and move the camera. If you use a tripod it should help keep the vibrations to a minimum.

15 thoughts on “Simple Light Painting Bar Build

  1. Am I missing something? You say his build is well documented and simple, but the only link in the article goes to a previous hackaday post? Is there a link to his work somewhere?

  2. Wait, it says it’s best to keep the bar stationary but move the camera? But then have a tripod to keep the vibrations to a minimum on the camera? Me momo confused…

Leave a Reply to arfinkCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.