GeezaGOLD Member
addict
694 posts
Location: Leeds, United Kingdom


Posted:
Im suprised there has been no threads on this.

What camera settings are best to capture enough light trails from fire and glow poi so it looks good but not overly bright/dull

I dont know that much about camera but i tried 2 second shutter speed with an F value of 6 and it looks quite good but not great

Whats settings do you use to get great pics?

oh, i have a Canon Powershot A540

TheBovrilMonkeySILVER Member
Liquid Cow
2,629 posts
Location: High Wycombe, England


Posted:
A search for 'camera' gives [Old link].



It's a small thread and really only has a couple of useful bits...

 Written by: coleman

use the lowest possible iso settings when shooting with digital cameras - the higher the iso, the more noise you will get in your image.



and this link here to a canon DSLR user guide.



Searching for 'photo' brings up [Old link], which has a fair bit more info in.



Personally, I prefer to use an ISO of up to 400 and a shutter speed somewhere between 0.5 and 1 second with the camera picking the f stop (because I'm lazy wink)

That's usually because I want to get a bit of a trail, but not too much that it's just lines of fire surrounding a blur - I like being able to see the person spinning.



Also, it depends on how fast they're spinning - I'll try to match the shutter speed with the poi speed so I get a nice and tidy trail without lots of random extra bits.



Obviously unless it's really cold out I'll happily sit playing with different settings and see if anything good comes out of them - the benefits of a digital SLR and lots of storage smile

Really, everything's very dependant on the shot you want and the circumstances in which you're taking it - what makes one photo look great can also make a slightly different one look crap.

Unless you're using a film camera, there's no excuse not to play around.



For anyone interested, my gallery
EDITED_BY: TheBovrilMonkey (1197418020)

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


PinkNigelPinker than thou
336 posts
Location: A little pink world all my own..


Posted:
I like the delayed flash settings for fire/glow, the extra shutter time for the trail and then the flash to freeze the performer.. Obviously that works better the more complete the blackout, and you'll get anybody else watching whinging about how flash photography and glow don't work, but if you can put up with that...

A wise man once said: "You have two ears and one mouth, therefore you should shut the censored up and listen" (though, to be fair, he might not've put it _quite_ like that..)


Live_in_a_spinBRONZE Member
Dude where's my Poi?
383 posts
Location: neather here nor there, United Kingdom


Posted:
There's a feature about this on www.domorepoi.com

Live life in a spin!!!
but if you fall don't come crying to me!!!


FireTomStargazer
6,650 posts

Posted:
ubblol it really much depends on what you consider a "beautiful (fire) image"...

Personally I like anything from 1/3rd to 3 seconds and a "second cutain synchonized" or any type of flash incorporated (flash + long term exposure = trails + performers visible)... There have been a numer of threads (like Bovril Monkey showed) and certainly you will find more on FlickR (like the ones of Master Jonathon Brown) to give you inspiration.

Happy digiz

the best smiles are the ones you lead to wink


KnollDarkBRONZE Member
stranger
1 post
Location: USA


Posted:
So I finally figured out enough camera stuff to be able to get decent shots.
First you need to know about a few camera terms and their settings

-----The Triforce of Exposure-----
These 3 options are the most important part of taking a good photo

ISO- This is how sensitive your camera is to light. Lower ISO means you get a finer, crisper picture but it becomes less sensitive to light. Higher means the picture will be fuzzier but will capture more light. You can think of this as makes darks darker and lights lighter.
-I switch between 200 and 400 depending on the mode I put my flowlights on

Shutter Speed- Probably the most important since you are taking a motion picture, this is how long the camera will capture the action. In Auto mode the camera normally takes a picture in 1/60 of a sec., most levels you will find are for fractions of seconds but all cameras have at least 1 full second for shutter speed. Because you are filming over a long period of time if you are holding the camera then even the smallest shakes will make the picture blur so a tripod is a must.

Aperture- You will probably find this on your camera as F#. This is how much light your camera lets in (note this is different then ISO which is how sensitive the camera is), think of Aperture as the iris of your eye, the larger the hole the more light is let in and the smaller the less light. One thing to keep in mind when setting this is that smaller numbers let in more light and vice versa.

These 3 things are the most important to taking a photograph (Focus is also up there but I overlook it most times and just put on autofocus) and will make the biggest impact in your pictures



Flash- (Coming Soon (maybe))
Focus- (Coming Soon (maybe, don't get your hopes up for these))

For more detailed and probably better information go to https://www.digital-photography-school.com/

EDITED_BY: KnollDark (1326602835)

beaniebobGOLD Member
casually noob tech poi spinrar
155 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia


Posted:
Adding onto what KnollDark posted, aperture also changes your depth of field. A higher f-stop (which is a smaller aperture) while letting in less light, increases the depth of field whereas a lower f-stop (larger aperture) will have the opposite effect, letting in more light, but decreasing the depth of field.

For most of the fire or glow stuff I've seen (admittedly not much - did my first burn in February, don't really know too many other people out there) depth of field shouldn't really matter too much, unless you're taking a photo of multiple performers or your subject is dancing around all over the place willy-nilly.

The main thing to know about depth of field is that it's simply how much of the picture will be in focus. If you focus on an object, there will be a certain area stretching behind the object that will be in focus. This is your depth of field. A low f-stop will have a very short depth of field, which means the picture will quickly drop off to fuzziness as you move beyond the distance you have in focus. A high f-stop will have a long depth of field, so the area that is in focus will stretch out far beyond your subject.

The distance between you and your subject will also change the depth of field, that is, as you set the focus further and further away from you, the depth of field will increase, such that if you take a photo of say, a cup from maybe 30cm away with an f-stop set to f3.5, you'll get the front half or front third of the cup in focus, the rear sides in soft focus, and everything else out of focus to the point where the background is just a blurry blob. Conversely, taking a photo of a car 10 metres away with the same f-stop will leave the whole car and a decent section of road behind it in focus.

Given that fire and glow are done in the dark though, you probably won't be worrying too much about aperture setting except as a tool to get the desired shutter speed.

Also thought I might mention that with any shutter speeds slower than around 1/30 (or less, since most dSLR lenses have stabiliser elements now), a tripod will really help to keep the camera stable and get a clean photo.

"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."


Addison02stranger
4 posts

Posted:
you all have good knowledge about the cameras that's why I have decided to get some suggestion for buying a new cameras, Actually
I am doing real estate business and I have to capture photos of home for showing the customers. so please recommend me a good model of camera thanks in advance.
EDITED_BY: Addison02 (1370327086)

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beaniebobGOLD Member
casually noob tech poi spinrar
155 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia


Posted:
You'd probably have better luck posting this sort of question on a dedicated photography forum or messageboard. This forum is for object manipulators, and this thread is specifically about fire spinning photography.

Not to mention the majority of peeps who've posted in this thread haven't been active in years.

Anyhow, in my opinion, these days pretty much any digital point and shoot camera will take good photos, so long as you're not buying some crappy ten dollar throwaway camera. I guess if you're looking for a camera to capture nice, professional images for work you might want a DSLR for the better sensor and utility, but aside from that, seriously. Go ask this question on a photography forum. Google is your friend here smile

"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error."



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