My first attempt at light painting was an extremely positive one. I was so excited about my results (and the fun I had capturing them), I couldn't shut up about it. I think my wife was slightly annoyed.
Over the course of this exposure, I was walking all throughout the scene with a torch (flashlight). But the light was never on me, so I wasn't exposed at all. Plus I never stopped moving long enough for the moon's light to identify me. It took a number of tries to get this right (mostly because my dog kept getting in the shot as a ghost), but when she finally laid down behind the camera, I got what I wanted.
Two things that really helped out were the lack of wind (0.0 mph according to the weather websites) and the late rising moon. You might think it would be nice to have moon to light the scene, but I would rather have the control of a single torch.
Post Processing:
* Increase exposure
* De-vignette
* Topaz DeNoise
* Topaz Adjust (very slightly to help balance the exposure and color)
* Increase contrast and definition slightly
* Increase saturation and vibrancy slightly
* Increase definition of the sky to make the stars pop out
* Curves
* Reduce highlights (but used color correct to eliminate the ugly grey cast) to cut down on the sky light in the right of the frame
* Increase saturation and luminance of purple
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Obvious use of a tripod, or any other long-term stabilization tool (1-10 *is not the score of the shot though*): 10
Still trees, road, gravel. Slight star trails.
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