Photographing Fire in the Studio - mixing flash and fire?

[patrick_f]

Hello, I have seen a technique in which some studio photographers

use fire combined with strobes for portraits. Ex - A firefighter

holding an ax with the blade on fire. My question is how can you do

this? I would assume you meter the fire and shoot at that exposure

with the flash on rear-synch or whatever. Is this correct? The

other question is what do you use for the fire? Any help is greatly

appreciated!

[lucas_griego]

Patrick since no one else posted I'll take a crack at it.

To get the fire glowing and looking like actual fire you will want to meter ambient light for the first part of the exposure on that shot. I'm guessing it'll be a longer exposure so the subject will have to hold the pose for longer than normal. Have your flash set to rear curtain synch and that should expose the subject itself.

 

Either way - there is no 'correct' way to do it and you will have to burn some film till you get it down. Or if you have digital you can really experiment and check the results right away. Additionally two completely seperate exposures - one for the fire and one for the subject and then sandwhiched together in Photoshop couldn't be terribley hard to pull off.

 

As for the flame - obviously - be careful anything flammable and liquid is a recipe for disaster in the studio. You might want to check out some professional stage props sites or movie effects companies. They often have many different types of gels that are flammable and some that burn more orange or more consistently than say just regular gas would. I don't know if a liscence is required to get your hands on the movie prop stuff.

 

Anyhow - there's my .02 on it. Good luck.

[brooks short]

Theatrical supply houses have a material that was called "cold fire" if I remember correctly. It's a powder you mix with torch fluid. It burns with a real flame but it's not as hot as other combustibles.

 

Check with The Set Shop in NYC.

[joseph_wisniewski]

Patrick,

 

I posted yesterday, but I muct have just hit "submit", and not bothered to hit "confirm"

 

When I do burning bats for little league teams (hey, it's a seller) I brush rubber cement on the bat and light it. But that's generally outdoors, around twilight.

 

I checked with a friend who just finished a 6 month project photographing 1800 firefighters, and he agrees with the rubber cement on the axe.

[bill c.]

Patrick-- I have shot a fair amount of fire eaters for promo pieces and etc. Basically, I make sure I shoot on a black backdrop so the fire shows up and try to light from the side as much as possible, using gobos to reduce spill on the BG. As the fire burns down, it more or less brackets the shots. Do some tests to determine the exposure for the fire, which will vary widely depending on conditions.

 

Yes, rubber cement will generally hold on one spot and stay lit for time it takes to shoot the shot. Again, your exposure should be determined by tests shot earlier. Set the aperture and shutter speed to give the best effect for the flames, then modify the light from the flash to give the best overall exposure of the subject.

 

The trick is to test, test, test. Film choices and ambient light (preferably you should have absolutely no ambient light except the flame) will change the effect greatly. I'd start out at about 1/4 sec. at 5.6 with ISO 400 speed film, and bracket time-wise for the first test. Then add strobe (dialed up or down to match the f-stop chosen) and see what that does to the effect.

 

Best regards, and good luck. -BC-

[joe hewes]

Meter the fire in full manual. Recompose. Dial back the flash compensation 1.5 stops or so. Experiment.

 

This will give you good exposure for the fire and preserve it's brightness, and allow the flash to fill in the faces a bit while holding the glow of the fire in their faces.