This did not work very well.

[Ron Evers]

Maybe I needed more ambient light.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

I think I need to get farther away the next time I try it.

 

[Ron Evers]

Open to ideas on how to take the series without blowing out the initial flair & keeping the entire flame in frame.

Backing off with a longer lens comes to mind as well as more ambient light. Any other ideas?

 

[LaFoto]

Sorry. No ideas myself here, though yes, I see it as a pity that the initial flare got so overexposed. But I do like what I see in Photo 1, when the first bit of gas (?) leaves the head of the match. Only the blue lens flare (?) is a bit irritating.

 

[Blake.Oney]

Wow. Nuked. Are you shooting it in one series of burst, or lighting matches over and over to get the shot you want? If you're not shooting in burst you could always under expose the crap out of the flare shot and then try to make it match the others, but I'm sure you would have thought of that were it the case.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I like the last one.

I know that's not helpful, but I don't have advice, so I'll say if the last wasn't centered, it'd look really neat.

 

[ababysean]

You might have to fake a series.... ? Since the lighting is so drastic in that first burst of fire, set your exposure to that burst and then adjust a few times, then put them together as if they were a series....

 

[Ron Evers]

I shot in burst & selected 5 shots representing the different stages. I took three series, removing extension tubes from a 50mm lens twice. With three tubes on, the flame totally overwhelmed the frame.

Corinna, the blue is a propane flame I used to initiate combustion of the match.

 

[Robin Usagani]

bring it down more.. 3 & 4 are still over exposed a little on the unburnt part of the stick.

 

[stepollard1]

I really like everything in pic 1 even the blue streak in top right