[offsign]

Dabbled with similar photography (* not as good as Wu's), and think it would be a challenge to achieve similar results in Photoshop.

Light painting in the sky is one thing, but getting the light source to simultaneously "paint" the foreground in a realistic way -- so it's suggestive how the two physically interacted -- requires another level of PS wizardry (at least beyond me).

* https://photos.app.goo.gl/9ED17BWiRfieVrap8

[chongli]

I think you may be able to achieve some nice results by stacking a bunch of exposures of the same scene from different times throughout the day and then use some various blend modes and masking to "paint" with the light.

[offsign]

Possibly. Luminosity masks work really well for bracketed exposures, but stacking different times of day introduces new problems (shadow angles, coloring) that I've struggled to adequately resolve. (Sure it's more a reflection my ability level.)

What's fun about drone lighting is that the detail is all 'real', with most of the 'art' going in the setup / staging. Really fun to see it executed well.

[glaugh]

Sure, maybe not as good as Wu’s, but still pretty freaking cool. I’d be proud if I made these.