6 March 2009 - 2:32Miko’s fire shoot

I haven’t done much with fire, but it’s definitely a fun medium to play with. . . just make sure a fire extinguisher is nearby.  Miko does a fire show and wanted to bring in her batons and fire fans and see what we could come up with.  I shot the fire fans and twirling batons, but i think my favorite effect came from the fire poi balls (fiery balls at the end of chains).  This image came from two exposures: the first she swung the ball around while slowly lifting and tightening the spiral during a 2 second exposure.  The 2nd was with flash exposure mimicking the final pose without fire.  The composite was then finished in photoshop.

This is a raw 1.5 sec. exposure.  Getting the exposure on the flames was quite the task as speed affected the brightness and as the fuel burnt off, the flame started turning blue.