An unusual Soul Service Station in the desert. Long streaking stars. Surreal light painting. We take you behind the scenes to reveal how you can also create photos such as this.
We'll explore how I used light painting to illuminate the image. Then we'll also discuss how we created the star trails. And of course, we will discuss what's in the photo, and just what Desert X actually is!
What Is Light Painting?
I lit the Soul Service Station, an art installation created by artist Alison Saar, using "light painting." This phrase is often used loosely to describe any addition of light to a night photograph. Really, though, light painting refers to a technique that uses a handheld light source to illuminate a scene during a long exposure. Your flashlight is your paintbrush, and you are quite literally painting the scene with light. Similar to a film director, you control what you illuminate and what you keep in shadow using your handheld light. Night photographers have used this technique for many decades.
Let's see how I went about light painting this image.
Creating Symmetry Through Handheld Light
If you light paint your subject at angles close to 90 degrees, you can create great details and depth. To create symmetrical shadows, I simply lit the Soul Service Station from the left side for several seconds using a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light. I then ran over to the right side and mimicked the same distance and angle as the other side. Notice how you can see the light on either side of the gas pump and support poles, while the shadow remains in the middle?
For good measure, I also light painted the sign with the red letters on the right. I used a 90-degree angle on the right side as well. You can see the shadows of the raised letters.
Shh! Don't Tell Anyone I Did This!
To my surprise, the back of the gas pump was permanently illuminated. While it looked good in my first photo (below), I didn't want it in every one. What to do? I taped a black garbage bag to cover the light using gaffer's tape so it wouldn't harm the gas pump. I made sure to take it off when I was finished photographing!
When reviewing my first photo, I smiled upon realizing that the North Star was almost directly over the station! Excited, I began setting up the camera to fire off a sequence of photos to create some star trails!
Why Are the Stars in a Circle?
The photo shows the apparent motion of the stars over a long period of time. This movement is caused by the rotation of the Earth. The camera was pointed precisely north. Therefore, this particular photo shows the apparent motion of the stars around the North Star, or Polaris, which is located in the center. These are called "star trails."
This photo, by the way, was a happy accident. While I knew that I was pointed more or less north, I hadn't realized that the North Star was almost precisely over the Soul Service Station! As I was reviewing some photos, I noticed that they were moving around the North Star, and this was almost directly centered over the top of the art installation. I decided to stay extra late and do some star trails.
One more reason to carefully review your photos, especially when doing night photography!
How Do We Create Star Trails?
Star trails can be created in numerous ways. Here, I used a method called "stacking." This is done by using your tripod-mounted camera and taking photos one right after another for many minutes (or hours, if you prefer). Then you load them in a free program such as StarStax. Or you may use Adobe Photoshop (not free, sorry!). Either program combines your successive images into a single image that shows the trails of the stars altogether.
For example, each photo of this scene was 90 seconds long at f/8 ISO 200. I took sixteen photos in succession. When I combined them in Photoshop, it was as if I did a single exposure of 48 minutes. But since they are stacked, the camera sensor doesn't heat up as much, and the result is a "cleaner" image.
Although I love StarStax, I usually use Photoshop. This is because, among other things, I can use Layer Masks to remove things such as airplane trails and inadvertent lights from oncoming cars. But StarStax is excellent, and it is extremely simple to use. And did I mention that it's free?
I discuss the three easy steps to creating star trails in Photoshop in more detail in this article.
What Is Desert X?
Desert X is produced by The Desert Biennial, a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in California. They create contemporary art exhibitions every two years around the Coachella Valley, California area. These are site-specific installations produced by international artists. The exhibitions often consider the surrounding environment as well as indigenous communities.
Desert X also produces art installations every two years in Saudi Arabia. These installations are called Desert X AlUla.
Where Is the Soul Service Station?
The Soul Service Station is located in Desert Hot Springs on Pierson Boulevard between North Indian Canyon Drive and Desert Terrace Way (33.962806, -116.542806). You can find out more about the art installation and the artist, Alison Saar, here.
The mountains in the distance are part of Joshua Tree National Park. The streaks in the distance are cars traveling on Highway 62, which climbs up the mountains, eventually heading toward two of the three main entrances to Joshua Tree National Park.
