A PHOTOGRAPHY enthusiast has used torch light to create dramatic images inside St Edburg’s Church in Bicester.

Darren Hopkins, 40, created the artistic pictures using a technique called light painting.

Mr Hopkins, from Bicester, said: “I have always been into photography since my dad bought me my first camera about age 12. So I was looking for a new challenge and technique to make it more exciting and fun.

“I looked up different techniques on the internet and I have been practising light painting for about a year now.

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“I have been doing it in the house and garden to practise but the church is the first real location I had attempted it in.”

Light painting is a technique in which photographs are created using the movement from a hand-held light source while using a long exposure to capture it. Just two torches attached to a rectangular piece of acryllic were used to create the orb lighting effect.

Mr Hopkins added: “I set the camera up first to face into the torches on a long exposure.

“Then I would move the torches from left to right to produce the orb effect, before highlighting the red colour in the images, also with a torch.

All the work was done during one long exposure, with each picture taking around six minutes to produce.

Mr Hopkins said: “That is part of the challenge, not using Photoshop or anything. There is no manipulation. The photograph is what you see on the camera – which is why it interested me more, practising the art in this way.”

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