Fire Spinning Photography

Even professional photographers almost never know how to take a decent fire photo. To be fair though, a fire photograph is quite unique, its almost like a side benefit of what a camera's settings are actually for, so I suppose its understandable. Basically though, there are 3 essentials to good fire photography :

A camera that has a variety of shutter speeds, a tripod and the taking of a lot of photographs.

Camera Types

There are two types of camera these days, normal camera's (the ones you put a film into) and digital camera's. I do prefer digital as you get to see the picture as soon as you have taken it, if its rubbish you can just delete it. You can learn from your mistakes very quickly this way, achieving a number of good shots in just one night. Batteries can be a problem though.

Normal camera's work a little differently Once you get above the point and click variety, normal cameras nearly all have a variety of shutter speeds and take perfectly good fire photo's. Old 35mm, SLR type cameras with this capability are everywhere. Make notes though as to which shutter speed you used for which picture. Get the film developed and look for your favourites. Then get another film and give priority to your favourite speed. This will save money on development costs.

My personal choice is digital everytime. One final tip is to try taking the pictures with a flash and without, sometimes the flash can ruin a fire spinning picture but others it really makes it.

Tutorial

All of the photographs in this article were taken whilst doing exactly the same move, it was a slow combination of butterflys (high, low, tight, wide, in-front and behind,) a small video of it can be seen here. The photos were taken by my mate Bill "yeh baby" Haze. Cheers buddy :) Happy Thursday.

Shutter Speed set to "auto"

Quite a good shot for just pointing and clicking isnt it? I just set the camera to the right mode and said "yeh baby" Whether this was a forunate occurance or the camera was good enough to figure out what a decent fire photograph is I don't know. I would suggest trying this setting first on any fire spinning photography shoot and seeing what you end up with. this is of course if your camera has this setting. If not read on...

Shutter Speed set to "1 second"

A 1 second exposure, I am thinking this would be a good setting for split weaves. Will do some soon. As you can see however the length of time that the shutter is open creates an image where the fire trails are somewhat short. It has its uses no doubt but these will be for very quick moves that have completed a full revolution in well.. 1 second or thereabouts. Have a play with this setting and various moves, you might end up pleasantly surprised.

Shutter Speed set to "1.5 seconds"

1.5 seconds, could probably have done with more fire but you get the idea dont you? The fire trails are a little bit longer than the previous setting making for a more aesthetically pleasing photograph. Again, it would suit some moves perfectly but I personally am not happy with the amount of light hitting the performer here. I am difficult to see in the middle of it all and a good fire photograph should have the performer clearly visible in my opinion.

Shutter Speed set to "2 seconds"

Getting there isnt it? The trails are longer still but still a bit thin in my opinion, doubling the shutter speed would give me time to go through the move again and put more light from the flames through the camera lens making them fatter and brighter. In this photograph though I as the performer am still only just visible. Maybe if the camera person was a little closer this would be different but then again maybe not.. Onto the next setting then.

Shutter Speed set to "3 seconds"

Just gets better and better doesnt it? Again, the fire trails are not fantastic, on the outside they are very thin but on the inside they are fatter and brighter. This is because the move has repeated once on the inside but has yet to get to the outside so the inside has been exposed to light from the fire twice whereas the outside has been exposed once making it less visible. I am still very much in the dark too. Next setting!

Shutter Speed set to "4 seconds"

Not the best fire photo in the world but see how there is more fire trail? The shutter has been open for longer, letting more light through. That light however is a moving object so we get trails of light. i don't know what happened to me as the performer here as I am all but disappeared, not good. Passable for sure but its hardly one for the portfolio is it ? The trails are nice though, they have made a clear and pretty pattern that is basically symmetrical.

Shutter Speed set to "6 seconds"

The repetition is becoming clear now, the fire heads have been round at least three times in the same pattern, so three lots of light have gone through the shutter making the fire trails brighter. In effect the fire trails on this picture have been triple exposed. Now however I am bathed in light to the extent that you can't see me. You just cant win sometimes eh ? I am now beginnging to think that "auto" is the way to go :)

Shutter Speed set to "8 seconds"

At this length of exposure its getting harder to remain still enough so that you can still see me inside there. A perfect picture in my opinion is one that uses nearly the whole frame, has lots of crisp, clear fire trails and one that you can clearly make out the performer inside of the fire. Very blurry due to the amount of movement by myself whilst spinning, something that cannot be avoided, we are getting beyond useful for standing fire photography now.

Shutter Speed set to "12 seconds"

I know, its getting silly now, its gone way beyond useful. If I was doing a 360 weave in there it would just be a picture of a big ball of fire with some feet sticking out of the bottom. The fire trails have been exposed lord knows how many times making them fuzzy and soft. My own personal movement has been exposed multiple times too making me appear to have been feathered in photoshop. It could be useful for moving fire photographs this setting however.

Shutter Speed set to "16 seconds"

I am the God of HELLFIRE!!! and I bring you... pudding!! :) Ridiculous isn't it ? For the purposes of this article however it is a perfect example of what we have been looking at, the length of time the lens is open when capturing a moving object that is emitting light. The only time I can see this shutter speed setting being useful is if the performer is moving around a lot thereby reducing the amount of times the fire overlaps itself in the photograph.

So, you can see how it is, that the longer the shutter is open at nightime, when the only real source of light is on the end of moving chains, the more the light burns onto the film (or the digital trickery in the camera.) This only applies if you are repeating the moves and staying still yourself of course. If you were to walk around a bit and get all fancy pants about it, the 16 second exposure would become more useful. You would find it difficult to get a clear shot of the person inside though.