#lighttricks

Saw a poster announcing the May 2026 release of Mandalorian & Grogu, and decided I wanted a new wallpaper & lock screen. (See previous post.)

This week I wanted to experiment with some stuff around my house and see what they did to light. I figured this would help me get some ideas for interesting photograms. To do this I shone a torch through some household objects in a dark room onto a black surface (in this case, my black bag pictured below).

First up: a clear cassette in it's case which apparently holds 'Dort's Retirement Music'. The torchlight was a bit dim so I ended up using a bigger light for the sake of this post. I liked the sillouhette but I think next time I'll try taking it out of the case.

Next up: A glass with Disney's Stitch and some pretty flowers on it. Stitch himself didn't make a particularly interesting pattern but I love how the flowers translate. I'd be really interested to see what this would look like as a photogram.

Next: A bottle of window cleaner. The bottle had an interesting shape and the liquid inside was translucent so I thought it would be worth a try. It made these really soft patterns of light depending which side I shone the torch through.

Next: A glass sphere with a fairy etched into it. The sphere made some beautiful rings with my torchlight and later experimentation with my phone torch revealed some different patterns. I'm really interested in exploring what this can do.

Finally, I tried using a shiny badge to reflect some torchlight but that was quite hard to control and I struggled to get any effect that I couldn't achieve with my torch alone.

Overall I enjoyed this work and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me!