Forums > Help! > taking pictures of fire poi

Posted: 26th Oct 2008
firstly my i say welcome....
Secondly do a durbs (search it)
Thirdly use the slow motion capture button

Peace and love

he he i am mike the amazing gloscircus person who is mike.

Officaly an exception to the Poi Boys are Girls Thing

Posted: 26th Oct 2008
Slow motion capture button?

Well, what sort of camera are you using? Generally just mess around with the length of exposure, after a while, you should get something you like..

I'm pretty sure there's a topic discussing this in one of the other forums- I think it was 'Technical'..

Welcome to HoP anyway..

THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH!


If that's okay with you?

Posted: 26th Oct 2008
i love u [CTRL]+[P]!!

Quote:suggesting exposure settings are not so useful unless you've decided upon what type of shot you want to take.
Here's what's worked fo me over the years:

Will you want to emphasise fire trails?
- longer exposure (1/4 sec or longer for most twirlers' speed), with tripod/monopod/image stabiliser(not with tripod)
- position yourself so that the flames are against a dim background.
- often boring, repetitive movements will result in an interesting shot if you give it a long enough exposure (15 sec+)
- for technical shots, a 1 sec exposure of fast, accurate planes will be ace.
- try to not shoot directly in a 90 degree angle to your subject all the time. it's boring after a while. try to frame a large element of the background (a tree, audience, a llama, ... i'm a big fan of water reflections) for context, however don't go over the top, you don't want to detract from the fire trail itself!
- sometimes if you are too close, a lower ISO sensitivity setting is necessary, for example ISO 200 or less when you are 2 meters away from a steel wool 1 sec exposure

Will you want to emphasise the firetwirler?
- shorter exposure (1/8 or shorter have given me the best results, at ISO 400 or higher. do not use hi ISO if your digital camera produces too much 'noise')
- if you have to use a flash, give it a rear-curtain setting so that the fire trails behind the moment of flash. provides direction for the shot.
- i'm not a fan of the flat lighting that a flash provides. would rather prefer that your subject have some ambient/key lighting so that the half of their body that is not in total darkness.
- zoom in! don't be afraid of cutting off parts of a twirler's body - you will get good results if you focus in on interesting, evocative detail. that is worth losting a little of the context provided by the missing elements. firelight is such a warm spectrum to light up a smiling twirler's face... when they remember to smile. tell them a bum joke if they ain't showing their pearly teeth, works for me


Non-Https Image Link


s'more ideas:
Fire twirling gallery on my fire twirling site

Fire twirling shots on my Hop Gallery


lastly, consider entering your best results into the HoP competitions
b

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