Light painting uses a light source and a long exposure, which I am very familiar with from Tesla coil photography. Steel wool can be ignited and spun in a circle giving a shower of sparks.
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Steel wool gives yellow sparks of course like this. This is a 5 second exposure of steel wool light painting.
Above: Normal coloured steel wool twirling.
If you look closely this has yellow, red and green sparks as well.
Red and green sparks are formed by manually alternating between red and green filters during the long exposure of 3 seconds.
This one has red green and blue segments rotated in front of the camera for an even more colourful effect.
I am holding the weight on a string. The steel wool is attached to the weight. The camera is behind the colour filter. This can be rotated manually or by a motor. The colours can be placed in any sequence from a choice of red, orange, green, blue or clear.
Steel wool is available in various grades. I have used medium, fine and superfine with very little difference in effect. It is attached with a small piece of copper wire and ignited on the end with a small blowtorch. Later I used a hand held egg whisk on a string.
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Photo Date: December 16, 2013