photography fire -- not candles!

arbogast

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Hi--

I've spent the better part of today trying to photograph fire without much success.

To be clear I'm trying capture as much detail as possible from a flamethrower-like object (hairspray and match) and I'm wondering if there is just too much motion for a clear snap. Attached are a couple of my better photos, but not really capturing what I want.

$fire1.jpg$fire2.jpg

This is what I'm going for:

fire breathing photo

I've been tinkering with apertures and shutter speeds, but can't seem to nail it down. I like the detail in the faster shutters, but they're a bit too dark to enhance.

Any tips?

thanks!

PS--Oh, I'm shooting a Nikon D80.
 
Largest aperture and fastest shutter speed that will give you a good exposure. Higher ISO if possible. Beyond that, you'll need a brighter flame.
 
In the shot of the flame-spitting guy: you see that weak, pale orange-ish coloration on the flames??? That comes from over-exposing flame, or from over-lightening it in post software. Flame is actually pretty tricky in terms of rendering; when it is exposed properly in-camera, it looks rich and orange; when it is over-exposed, it gets pale, FAST.

As when shooting any self-lighted source (sparklers, fireworks, glowing metals, flames) the exposure is based on ISO, aperture width, and length of exposure.

You need to look at the flame renderings, and figure out WHAT, exactly, you want. If you want more blurring, slow the speed down. If you want a more crisply-rendered flame, you need a more brief shutter time, which might also require an elevated ISO level. There is no one, single speed, suitable for every single flame source...if the speed is too brief, the flames tend to look weird..."frozen" flame, like "frozen" moving water is not always the best look.

The two pictures you show seem to have a speed that's, maybe, a wee bit too slow...too much blurring...

It's tricky because fire and flame varies, constantly, every second that it burns! These are my experiences with shooting fire and flames.
 
Thanks for the replies. I have tried up to 1/4000 and ISO 1600 (not together). Still not getting great results.

The one thing I haven't tried yet and you both have confirmed is better light. I'll throw some light onto the fire and see how that works. Thanks!
 
To get the incredible fire footage for the movie "Backdraft," they discovered that they had to pour tons of light onto the scenes. Nobody had thought of that before.
 

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