This worked better.

[Ron Evers]

[FONT=&quot]After considering the input from folks here & further thought, I decided to go with a wider lens rather than longer. I did this series with a 28mm lens & I upped the shutter speed three stops from the metered reading in ambient light. Taken in burst mode & images cropped.


1. This frame is to show how I initiate combustion.[/FONT]

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

 

[sean7488]

heh that's cool, you should try to piece them together instead of individual pictures, may look cool. Just my 2 cents. Nice job nonetheless.

 

[Geaux]

Very cool concept, but it's a bit on the noisy side, no?

 

[oldmacman]

[FONT=&quot]
1. This frame is to show how I initiate combustion.[/FONT]

Cool shots, Ron. Just a suggestion, but if you do a little PP and set the black point to be your empty space, it will help to get rid of the noise in that area. I did this to your first pic to show the difference it makes:

 

[Ron Evers]

It's not really noise, it is what the black foam looks like I used as a background.

I really like how you blackened the background Macman but I would not know how to in Lightroom.

 

[RauschPhotography]

Love the last shot! Great work, Ron

 

[Blake.Oney]

In lightroom in the basic edits where you edit contrast etc. there is a slider that just says black or blacks.

 

[oldmacman]

It's not really noise, it is what the black foam looks like I used as a background.

No worries. Most shooters want to get rid of that visual competition. If you do want to eliminate that area, you could do what Blake suggests or compensate when you shoot by putting a flag between the light source and the black foam to help control light spill.

 

[Ron Evers]

Thanks Blake, I tried it & it works.

 

[NikonNewbie]

Def a big difference from last batch! number 4 is my pick!
Nice job!

 

[Derrel]

That shot of the smoke curling up is very well-done Ron...the shutter speed used looks absolutely perfect!

 

[sam_justice]

Wow, that's really well exposed. I would've thought that the combustion would have destroyed the image with it 3 stops above.

 

[starcluster]

Amazing! like the details i see on the Matches surface and how it became a white smoke...

Great Shot!!

 

[jamesdavidboro]

Good work! I love the smoke shot.

 

[Ron Evers]

Wow, that's really well exposed. I would've thought that the combustion would have destroyed the image with it 3 stops above.

In case I was unclear, I meant that I increased the shutter speed - made it faster to compensate for the light generated by the match. You see I am using manual lenses where I set the aperture on the lens. The lens used for this series was a Vivitar 28/2.8 set to f11 & a shutter speed of 1/15s.