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Light Painting with a Laser Light 

The inspiration for the light painting with a laser light is simple, cats love laser pens and love to chase the red dot. I opt to use the Android app, Camera-FV-5 for this project for 10-second shutter exposure in my bedroom. Also, my ISO was above 400 which is why the original appeared very nosy. Based on the feedback, I took the photo into Photoshop and reduced the photo noise and adjusted the curves. The final effect gives it a fantasy abstract feel with the red dot path turns into lava on my bedroom floor with a red-violet hue. As mentioned, I took the photo in my bedroom with my phone in one hand and the laser light in the other, drawing it around the messy floor as my cat Nala was trying to get the red dot naturally. I did not plan on having Nala play with the red dot but it made the photo look perfect. As for compositional elements, the natural framing of my messy floor frames the light painting from the laser light with its random paths make the pattern. It also has a somewhat asymmetrical effect. The strongest part of the photo is, of course, the laser light itself being chased by Nala because with her playing with it, I would not have gotten the abstract nature of the light painting to look like lava. The weakest part is the noise and although I reduced the noise of the original, it is a little noisy but not as much as the original photo I took. What I learned from this project is how to use longer shutter speed and to use light to create something that I can make a digital painting, just with my cell phone camera. An element I could improve in future projects is keeping the ISO at or below 400. When you got a cat at home, laser light pen, and a camera, in my case, you got a pretty good light painting.

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