any tips on photographing fire in black and white?

Does anyone have any recommendations for photographing fire fairly closeup, with a lot of

atmospheric flame filling the frame? I am wondering if this should be done in the dark

and how long a shutter speed, ASA, etc. Any thoughts?

My only recommendation is "dont'". Seriously, I've photographed campfires with B&W and the flame just looks a lot like smoke when you get done. Some things just work better with color film.

 

If you're going to try anyway, then yes, do it in the dark, use fairly fast film, and just meter off the fire (assuming the fire more or less fills the frame). Don't be surprised if exposure time is long enough that you can't "freeze" the flame.

It's doable. Just remember, you are photographing a light source. What time of day depends on how much of the surroundings you want to see - fire at night creates a large subject brightness ratio (SBR) in your scene. For that reason, you might be better off at dusk or dawn where the dim light from the sky will fill in dark areas and lower the SBR.

 

Play with shutter speeds. One or two are better than the others, but you have to figure that out by experiment ;-)

When I photographed camp-fire, I simply took a meter reading of the flame (after dark for max contrast). Then used a fast shutter speed , 100th, 200th, etc. Set the f-stop, used a tripod. And shot away. The f-stop will change depending on the amount of wood burning. ISO 400 film. The photos can be quit interesting especially in B&W. You will find various shapes and forms in flames "phantoms in the flames". Have fun.

Siobhan, I'm going to tell you how I would do it, you may or may not choose to do it this way. Probably I would use 400 speed film. Read brightest area with a 1 degree spotmeter, placing the highest reading on Zone IX. Choose an f-stop/shutter speed combination as you are sure will give a reasonable representation of the way the flames should be, my guess is 1/30 or 1/60 sec. As someone has already indicated, a slow shutter speed will give the effect of bright smoke to the flames(about 1 sec.). Due to many factors of varibles, bracketing is probably wise... Good luck....Jim

It might be interesting to experiment with filters for this. A red filter might produce some unique results. The long exposure would negate the realistic look of flames, but it might reveal a usable effect.

Siobhan, well my curiousity got the best of me. But not having a real campfire to read it's flames, I substituted close up readings of the brightest area of an average size candle's flame. While I can't be sure the brightest part of the candle flame is the same as the brightest campfire flames, it may be close. Using a Pentax Spotmeter V and reading close enough to fill the 1 degree circle with the brightest part of the flame, the reading was 12 2/3 on the scale. Placing that on Zone IX(if printed properly, will print as pure white) gives an exposure at 1/30 @ f8 for 400 speed film. Of course,that's also 1/60 @ f5.6, 1/125 @ f4, or another equivilant exposure setting as you choose. This was in a darkened room without windows or other illumination....Jim

My only response is that unless you have nothing else in the image but the fire itself (thus exposing the flame for Z-IX would be fine), oughtn't you perhaps give a bit more exposure to protect any midtones and shadows in the image? When I've shot fires in the past I had to worry about this, and thus forsaken the highlights a bit to ensure that everything else wasn't turned to blackened toast in the final image. And the more there is outside the flames, the more important this becomes.

 

With the modern fast B&W films, especially unpushed varieties such as TX at an EI of 400 or TMax-3200 at an EI of 800-1000, a good bit of overexposure in the highlights is not anywhere near fatal.

Thank you everyone for the tips. I will try some different things and see what I come up

with. Your comments are very helpful.

Meter the lightest part of the flame and if you want well defined flames, choose the fastest shutter speed possible... otherwise you will get the same effect as a long shutter speed shooting a white water river or waterfalls.

To extrapolate a bit more-- I meter on the sky to establish a starting point for sunsets and sunrises, this technically underexposes the picture but you are in fact aiming for emphasis of the color in the sky and clouds around the sun which itself also comes out about the right density.

 

Try spot metering on the WARMEST part of the flames-- the REDS, as well as the smoke that is emitted around the fire. These will be producing several stops LESS LIGHT, giving the hottest parts (yellow or even blue) about the right exposure for saturated highlights. And as I noted above, unless you want the surrounding areas to come out charcoal black, spot meter them as well to see if your shadows are going to have enough exposure to produce adequate shadow detail. Smokey fires produce much better fill light than really hot clean burning flames. BRACKET in full stops around the optimal setting.

 

I would also expose for the important shadows and then develop for a long shoulder in the final negative-- that should provide for adequate discrimination of the highlights in the flames, although probably with a good bit of burn and dodge needed. Use of a compensating development technique will help the shadows.

I recommend color too. Check out the photos from the Ashefest Music and Arts Festival. They had fire dancers and a propane cannon shooting fireballs above the crowd. http://www.performanceimpressions.com/Ashefest_Music_and_Arts_Festival/

<a href="http://www.performanceimpressions.com/Ashefest_Music_and_Arts_Festival/> Ashefest Fire Photographs</a><br>

 

<a href="http://www.performanceimpressions.com/"><br>

 

photography galleries and services</a>

I did newspaper photos of fires with TMax. I have also done wedding photos with fireplaces in the background. Just expose for the scene and bracket. It's not a big deal. Shoot some pictures you'll get it.