You play with fire, you're sure to get. . .

[CLKunst]

...some interesting photo ops.

I was invited to photograph a group of fire dancers who are getting ready to compete for the right to dance and light the "man" at Burning Man this summer. What a spectacle! They've invited me back on Friday to see them practice again. I'm still in edit mode, sorting them all out, but here are some I like so far. How am I doing? Suggestions for next time? How much motion is too much motion? (Yes, I realize I have just opened the subjective Pandora's Box by asking that question but I want to know what you think. ) Except for some crop adjustments these are SOOC.

Please C & C or should I say. . .fire away! :devil:

[GB1]

CL - These are always fun. I've done the same but with flashlights instead of fire. I think I might open the aperature up a stop. I think this would make the rest of the image a little brighter. Looks a little dangerous. I guess they're wearing asbestos clothes right?

Gb

[julsoph]

I think these are really cool, Cindy. I don't know what advice to give to "improve" them, as in how to do it...but the only thing I can say is I wish there was a tiny bit more light on say the face of the person in the 2nd shot. But really, I like these a lot as is. Number 2 and number 4 are my favorites.

Emily

[ivaaannxcore]

I have to agree with julsoph, these shots are amazing. I don't really have adivce for them either. And number four is my fave.

[swmdrayfan]

Cindy, these are pretty interesting. I'm not even going to pretend to tell you how to shoot this kind of thing.
John

[CLKunst]

Thanks for ringing in on this one folks. The whole darn thing was just so fun and wide open! Really I am looking forward to giving this another go this weekend.

Thanks for your op GB! These are from the beginning of the night and I did some more fiddling with settings later on in the evening (higher ISO compromises, etc.) which I haven't gotten to yet in the edit. For next weekend I have already decided to be more careful with the white balance and aperture and shoot in the lower ISO range. I experimented a lot between the longer shutter speeds and trying to freeze the motion. Right now I am really enjoying the light trails but am not thrilled about the glowing blobs they are reducing my dancers to.

No I don't think any of them were wearing special clothes although some were wearing gloves. Most of the women had on very fringy skimpy outfits with lots of sparkles, etc. Most of the guys were just wearing T shirts or sweatshirts. They were surrounded by a ring of safety people ready to run in and put out any fires though. I'll post some of them when I get to them in the pile. It was definitely hot!!! Oh and the girl in shot #2 is a hula hooper! That's her hoop she's spinning around!

Here's one more of my hooper for consideration regarding "is this too much motion"?

[Tom_Proctor]

These shots are pretty nice. I think they could just be a tad bit brighter. But I'm just a noob still .

I guess they're wearing asbestos clothes right?

Abestos gives you lung cancer . It's like smoking 50 years of cigarettes in less than a second.

[Janie]

How cool! The Hula Hoop girl shots I did were at late dusk with the glowing hoop (she will be at Burning Man as well - in fact, your people look kind of familiar - I wonder if they were at the Fairie Festival in PA?), but she also does her thing with the hoop on fire, as your last picture here. Can you take any at late dusk? They dancers bodies will be illuminated a little more and you will get the crazy lines from the flames still, but won't have to slow the shutter as much, so the dancers faces will still be in focus!

[CLKunst]

Thanks for commenting Tom and Janie!

Janie -
I agree that evening would be a much better time for these. Maybe this weekend we will get an earlier start. Last weekend, nothing got started till around 10:30 so my evening twilight was long gone by then. They were filming with a video crew and I was invited along to do stills so there was no hope of using a flash. This weekend will be just me so I should be able to try different things like a rear curtain flash, off camera flash, etc that should make things more interesting.

[GB1]

Abestos gives you lung cancer . It's like smoking 50 years of cigarettes in less than a second.

Yikes... that sucks. Guess that's why they wear those masks.

Sounds like a good subject for a photojournalist? "The Day in the Life of an Asbestos Worker"

[Loupey]

I would suggest stopping down a 1/2 to one full stop to reduce the ambient light falling on the faces. Then use 2 off-camera strobes to illuminate the freeze the people. Keep your shutter speed unchanged. That way you will get the best of both - illuminated and sharp faces/bodies with the blur action of the fire.

[CLKunst]

Sounds like what I might try! Thanks Loupey!
Now I just have to make sure my equipment doesn't get torched by accident!

[Loupey]

C.L., I'd be more worried about the setup getting knocked down. Strobes on black light stands in the dark - sounds like a recipe for disaster!

Seriously, if you can have at least one strobe to backlight the people, you would get a great ring lighting effect to separate them from the dark background. Lookin' forward to see your next photo session. Good luck!


Oh, I forgot, how about using multiple exposures? With your dark backgrounds, you could place the same person a couple places in a wider shot. Might be cool if the character is a "character" so to speak.

[CLKunst]

Exactly the "accident" I will try to avoid. But if I can pull it off it will look so cool!! Also the multiple exposures sound like lots of fun too. Perhaps leaving the camera on the tripod and getting in there with a loose flash head to do a few flash burst shots. Can't wait to give it a try! Experiment is the name of the game! Thanks for the ideas Loupey!

[Loupey]

Got another idea for ya. If you take 1 fire dancer and keep him in one spot doing his thing, you can shoot, shift, and reshoot to perform the multiple exposure.

Now imagine a single frame with 3 images of the same dancer. The image on the left with him facing you, the image in the center with him facing left (or right), and the image on the right with him facing the opposite direction.

Or, if you keep your camera stationary on a tripod, have the dancer walk across the frame while the shutter is tripped. Then fire the strobes manually a couple times as he makes his way across.

Hey, can I come too?!