Flame Art

[Fiacre]

A short tutorial on capturing the initial flare of a lit match & creating unique & interesting images in post processing. For all those pyromaniacs out there

The first step is to capture the flare of a sparked match



Setup & Equipment:
- Clothes peg as a small clamp to hold the match in place.
- Setup camera on tripod & manually focused on the match head
- Shots were taken in low light with either EF50mm f/1.8 II or EF24-105mm f/4L IS (had success with both)
- Manual settings around 1/8000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 to 800
- Remote release & burst mode (40D ideal for this with 6.5 fps)
- I tried striking the match at first but lost my focus to easily so then used a lighter to heat the match until it flared/lit. (The trick there is timing your shutter release & keeping the lighter flame out of the shot).

OK now you have your initial capture..

Next lets do some post processing:
- Crop into the shot & blow up the image. (Maybe a Macro lens could be used to take these but don’t have one. Shot in RAW so didn’t have a prob blowing these up).
- I play about with saturation, sharpness, vibrance & contrast in Photoshop until happy.
- To create the more interesting patterns, it is just a case of copying & pasting the same image on itself, flipping one layer either horizontally or vertically & blending them (again in Photoshop).

And the result of blending the 'mirror' image is unique every time.
Some are scary...


Some are like flowers..


I like the fact that no 2 are the same - there are other examples on my Flicker

I am sure this could be done many different ways & would love to hear if anyone has questions, suggestions or tries it for themselves.

Thanks for watching.

[0rovert]

Thanks for the post Fiacre. Your images look great. I tried this a while ago and got somewhat favourable results. I too enjoy the uniquness of each shot. I've read some other articles/posts that suggest using a flash; haven't tried that approach yet. I will however reattempt with your clothes peg and lighter strategy.

Heres a couple of my shots:

[Fiacre]

Thanks Orovert - glad someone likes them! I think we may be in the minority as you are the only one to reply.. :-) Anyway, I found it frustrating trying that method of striking to match as you have less control over the camera, focus point, timing etc. Havn't introduced any flash but may be worth investigating. Let me know how it goes for you & dont burn down the house ;-)
Fiacre

[railfan1975]

I'll be trying this at some point! Thanks for the tutorial!

[03mach1speed]

Thanks, that's a great idea for me to try......... I love interesting ideas that are not the usual......

[Fiacre]

you are welcome! Hope you get some interesting results. This project also helped me hone in & fine tweek manual camera settings which in turn improves overall camera skills. So keep shooting

[heyadamhey]

Thanks for the tutorial Fiacre! tried a few last night, but only had four matches
definitely gonna try some more! and play with some different settings...

I set up my camera on a tripod and fixed a match with a clip and then "struck" the match with the sand paper side of the match box. worked quite well.
can't do burst mode with remote on my D60

will posts some pics once I've tried again...

thanks again!

[Hurtado]

Thank you for your really simple TUT.
I made the setup right away Got some great shots that way.

[jhingcabrera]

@Fiacre

thanks for this tutorial, tried it a couple nights ago...here's wht I got...they're not as good as the one you posted tho' I used my nikkor 50mm f1.8 on my nikon D60.



EXIF:
Exposure Time = 1/500"
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
F Number = F6.3
Exposure Program = Aperture priority



EXIF:
Exposure Time = 1/500"
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
F Number = F6.3
Exposure Program = Aperture priority

[Digital Gran]

Great pictures Im going to give it a go myself new to photo shop but cant wait to try this one out