A Fun Project You Can do in Your Own Home – How to Create a Physiogram
Anyone who has ever experimented with shutter speed knows that long exposures can yield some pretty interesting results. Whether it’s light painting at night or capturing the motion blur of a running river, long exposures can truly transform an image. A physiogram is a slightly different take on long exposure projects like light painting. It’s a technique that can easily be done in your living room, with no assistant required. Although the resulting images may look complex, the process to create a physiogram is actually very simple.
What is a Physiogram?
Physiography is actually a field of geography that studies the processes and patterns found in the natural environment. The name physiogram is apt because it is a photographic study of the patterns and movement of a suspended object. Imagine an object tethered to a string and suspended from a fixed point. If you push it, the object will swing around in a neat circular motion at first, completing each rotation in roughly the same place each time. However, as the object loses velocity, it will complete an orbit that is increasingly smaller than the last one.
The sequence of rotations that the object takes while it swings around isn’t visible to the naked eye. Fortunately, however, we can use photography to reveal these fascinating patterns. By attaching a light source like a flashlight or LED (don’t use a laser pointer – they can wreck your camera’s sensor!) to a rope or string and allowing the object to swing, we can view the entire path of the object in a single long exposure. The resulting photograph or physiogram reveals fascinating patterns and shapes.
What you will need
1-A small ligt source.( I used my mobile phone LED)
2-About a meter (3 feet) of string
3-Camera with manual exposure capabilities
I used DSLR
4-A dark room
How to create a physiogram
Take the LED and tie the length of string to it. Small LED lights on keychains are great because they won’t smash your lens if they fall. They also have a narrow light for better line definition and come with a key ring and chain for hanging perfectly vertical. You can usually pick one up at a local shop.
How to use your cellphone
To use your phone as light source cover the LED of the phone with a small piece of hard paper with a pin hole .
Place the pin hole directly above the LED of your phone and secure it tightly with cello tape.
The physiogram was made with a cellphone LED not covered. The lines look thicker because the light from it is wider. Using a small LED means that you will see more defined/ finer lines.
Hang securely your phone to the string.
Take the other end of the string and attach it to the ceiling with a pin or hook. You want to fix the LED so that it will swing easily, about a meter and a half (5 feet) above the camera to start. Your camera will be positioned on the floor directly beneath the LED, so make sure each component is securely fastened. Having a UV filter fixed to the lens is a good idea, just in case something does drop on the camera.
The view looking up – I attached my cellphone to string with ceiling hook.
Camera setup
To photograph nice clean lines of light,
Place your camera directly under the LED.Use the LED screen of the DSLR to focus pPlace your camera directly under the LED . The LED light should be almost in the centre of the screen.
To start off, set your exposure time to 30 seconds at f/16 with 100 ISO. Position your camera beneath the LED, turn the LED on and turn out the room lights. Give the LED a good push, but be careful not to swing it so hard that it goes out of frame. Wait until the light settles into an even motion and press the shutter button.
Once your exposure is complete, have a look at the results! This project does require some trial and error to perfect, adjustments to your pushing technique, exposure time, and changing the length of the string or the light source are all ways you can refine the final image. A shutter release cable or remote trigger is handy too if you are experiencing camera shake.
Spirograms
A spirogram is a geometric drawing toy that produces beautiful intersecting mathematical circles with a smaller circle inside a bigger circle.
A similar pattern can be photographed using above mentioned requirements.
the trail and error photo to check if props and camera position. 
