Shooting fire performers, advice needed

[yourapocalypse]

Morning all.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience shooting fire performers; poi, whips, staff, hoops etc? I've done some stuff before, but any good results have been more chance than design. I'm shooting at a festival this weekend, and there'll be some fire workers there who I really want good shots of. Any advice? My kit is in my sig, and I'm thinking of hiring a lens for the festival (which brings up the age old question: 24-70 or 24-105?)

I want to shoot both static:

and dynamic:

Thanks

 

[Cistron]

The fire is very bright, so if anything, blown highlights will be the problem. For those fire-spitters, you'll need less than 1/200 to freeze the action, otherwise there is no structure in the fireball and it looks like a boring blob.

For example:

This one was shot at f/9, ISO200 and 1/200. The image in the photostream before was shot at 1/100 and lost some structure.

 

[yourapocalypse]

Mmmm, yes indeed. It's a fight between not allowing the fire to get blown out, and retaining a little of the background. That's a *lovely* shot there, but for the most part I'd want a little more background.

Of course usually I'd practice, practice, practice, but this sort of opportunity doesn't come around that often

 

[david1701]

Mmmm, yes indeed. It's a fight between not allowing the fire to get blown out, and retaining a little of the background. That's a *lovely* shot there, but for the most part I'd want a little more background.

Of course usually I'd practice, practice, practice, but this sort of opportunity doesn't come around that often

so light it with off camera flash, if you know your working aperture you you want 'some' light it aint hard

 

[yourapocalypse]

Heh, yeah that's an option. Whenever I've done that though it's never quite worked how I've intended. Plus I always think fire shots look better when lit just by fire, otherwise the colour balance gets interesting. Plus I'll be at a festival, and I doubt I'll be able to take my flash any further off camera than the length of my extension cord

 

[rob13]

That was my effort, but I wanted to retain the backdrop of the bridge in it.

 

[Legacy]

is this a situation where 2nd curtain sync would work ?

Phil

 

[yourapocalypse]

As I understand it, Phil, yes. At least if you wanted the fire trails to look like they're going the right way.

Nice shot, Rob