First there was Riverfire

[CraigVTR]

.....then there was Strummers Creek. This is where the the real action took place over the weekend, these were shot on Sunday evening.








For those that are interested this is the setup I used for the twilight shots.

[marcotrov]

Love the motion Blur. #2 and #3 do it for me love the tones and reflection. #1 is a little busy for my taste.
Thanks for the setup shot.
Did you trigger using infrared or SU4 mode?
cheers
marco

[gstark]

Craig,

And here was I, expecting to see some Irish dancers!

Nice work, and good balancing of the available dark around the twilight hour, with your strobe.

[surenj]

Great shots and reminds me of the Joe Mcnally latest book cover... What a great selection of location and angles. Love the reflected water look.

I wonder whether you tried any with more flash power (two of them perhaps) with higher aperture to reduce the flame contamination on the person? ie sharper person and more blurred fire with less contamination?

[craig.rohse]

Sure is different (good to see), the second one is nice. As suren already said the reflections are nice as well.

[zafra52]

Very interesting lighting tecniques and very nice photography.

[LaurieE]

nicely done - I especially like the second pic.

it would be great if you posted some technique details on this shoot.

my eldest is a fire twirler and I am keen on taking some pictures like this but was not really sure where to start.

[CraigVTR]

Thanks for the comments guys.
Some info.
1st shot 1.6sec @f8
2nd shot 1.3sec @f4
3rd shot 1.3sec @f4

Both the last two shots were in Aperture priority mode with the camera set at -1.0ev to darken the background and the flash at + 3.0 ev. Metering was centre weighted, flash was rear curtain sync for all shots. The first shot was in manual mode as once it was dark there is no need for exposure compensation and the flash was not having an impact on the shots.

The remote flash (sb800) was triggered using an on camera sb800 as the commander/master, my intention was for the on camera to trigger the remote and not flash the scene. I am not sure I had the setting correct for the camera mounted flash as it seemed to be lighing the foreground in some of the later shots on the night so I dialled it back to -3.0.

I was using the D300 with Nikkor 105vr mounted on a tripod, I was using the longer lens to allow me to shoot from over the water. This is the second time I have tried this type of shoot and there were a couple of problems. I wanted the twighlight effect immediately after sunset but the twirlers turned up late. Apparently "We will be there at sunset" means 20 mins after sunset. I know to specify a time next attempt. The distance I was from the remote flash caused some problems with the unit being able to fire, although I could increase my distance as the ambient light faded. The light fades very quickly and being able to change the remote flash ev settings from the camera is a tremedous advantage. I needed to use a tripod as my old hands cannot seem to stay still, but being able to move and change compositions was very limited. I framed very loose to allow for the twirlers movement and they were not keen on getting to close to the flash incase they set it on fire. The only other problem was whan a very small gust of wind blew the light stand over. The imact on the sand stuffed the brolly but the flash was ok, it landed about half a metre from the water, damn, the insurance may have replaced it with an sb900.

Thoughts for next time; Use two remote flashes, arrange the shoot for earlier before sunset and shoot in shade with lots of minus ev on the camera and an nd filter to slow the shutter speed and simulate a darker than actual environment. Use a monopod.

Shooting the firetwirling was inspired by daughter who twirls, but I am trying to achive the standard as seen in the Hot Shoe Diaries.

Here is one with the lens stopped down to f18 with a 3sec exposure but the flash did not fire. With enough flash and stopped down lens it may prevent the fire contaminating the scene. Will have to try next time.

[gstark]

Craig,

so I dialled it back to -3.0.

But its still an EV based setting, which means that it's still trying to read the available dark, and will still offer you variable power output at the head.

Possibly, you might find it better to switch to manual control on the flash, and then dial back the power to 1/32 or thereabouts. This will give you a constant feeble output, but it should generally be enough to trigger the remote SBWhatever.

[CraigVTR]

so I dialled it back to -3.0.

But its still an EV based setting, which means that it's still trying to read the available dark, and will still offer you variable power output at the head.

Thanks Gary. I will keep that in mind.

[Mr Darcy]

The remote flash (sb800) was triggered using an on camera sb800 as the commander/master, my intention was for the on camera to trigger the remote and not flash the scene. I am not sure I had the setting correct for the camera mounted flash as it seemed to be lighing the foreground in some of the later shots on the night so I dialled it back to -3.0.

To minimise flash from your master, set it to M:--- The manual claims this turns off the flash for the exposure. In practice, I have found there is some contribution, but it is minimal and can be safely ignored unless you have highly reflective subjects. In difficult cases you can point the flash away from the subject. (works indoors, probably wouldn't here) or snoot the Master & point it directly at the slave (if you have only one slave. Two in different directions would be problematic) Or put a polariser on the master & a cross polariser on the lens to eliminate direct reflections from that source. (see "Light Science & Magic" for details) The ideal would be to go to an SU-800 which eliminates the visible light component from the commander signals, or better still, go to a radio trigger system. yes I know I am spending your money

If you have the time to set it up, I agree with Gary that going fully manual would allow you complete control, but what you did by dialing down the Camera and dialing up the flash will work well most of the time. And it IS what Joe does.

[amashun1]

very cool pic

[CraigVTR]

Greg
Thanks for the ideas on the flash setup. An su800 would be nice but I want a 300 2.8 first, if I give you my wife's ebay login you can help her spend my money.

[Mr Darcy]

Greg
Thanks for the ideas on the flash setup. An su800 would be nice but I want a 300 2.8 first, if I give you my wife's ebay login you can help her spend my money.

I'll be happy to. You don't mind if I change the delivery address do you? I promise I'll leave the billing address the same

[zafra52]

Technicality apart, the last one is excellent!

[LaurieE]

thanks for the details craig!

I showed my son your pictures and he said "COOL" and then proceeded to tell me they were using fire ropes and he only has pois and a staff but since now he uses fire water instead of kero we should be fine to do it in the backyard

did you need to get any special permission to do a "burn" on the beach?

anyway - I think we will be good to go in a little while when we can synchronise our diaries which should only take 3 or 4 weeks

[CraigVTR]

Laurie

In the first shot the guys were using staffs, in two and three it was a sword, they were all lit with kero.

The twirlers are part of the Mooloolaba Fire group and I do not think they seek any special permissions for using the beach. The meet every Wednesday night on Mooloolaba Beach for a twirl and it can be very crowded with twirlers and spectators, there is sometimes a bongo drum band playing as well. It can be a real carnival atmophere.

These shots were taken at a more intimate twirl just north of Coolum Beach.

[aim54x]

Nice pics...I have not shot fire in a while...Sydney University SURCAS has fire nights on campus every other Wednesday...I have twirled with Staff before (got bored of taking pics) so maybe I should link up with those guys again and see if I can tee up something for a mini meet... no promises