Fire Blazing @ OC

[josephjoe]

Fire dancers

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
I would like to learn the essence of capturing moving objects, people and items.
In this instance it was taken during a trip to discover Orchard Central which there was a mini event showcasing a fire dance. I felt that fire should be dealt like water, to capture the streaming waves and trails of it.
The following picture is taken using Shutter mode, F3.5 Shutter 0.4 20mm
Free hand.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

Can i improving with my settings? If its done without tripod or mono pod. will the sharpness of the dancer in this instance be necessary to be sharp, my focus is the fire thou.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
With no tripod or mono pod, i can only take multiple shots per time to try capture the best shot available.


4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture

I am more focus in the vibrancy of the picture. I hope the fire looks firery enough, but the back ground migh turn yellowish.

 

[x016shooter]

nice photo, nice concept u have there :thumbsup:


1) Composition wise, there is too much leg room and too little headroom.. more headroom means more opportunity/possibility for the fire to go up.. too much legroom seems like floating? :think:


2) IMHO, there are two ways in seeing this. If ur photo is dim/dark (only the fireball is visible), ur subject ( the person) can be blurred. Since ur photo is bright, i personally felt that the subject should have a certain degree of sharpness, sharper than this.

3) not really sure if you want to take multiple shots if you want a trailing fireball. trailing fireball needs longer shutter speed, and multiple shots is like, 3fps till 11fps.. too short IMHO to make a trailing fireball..

4) it is overall, a good photo and like all other photos, with rooms of improvement.. really depending on each person's preference.. you done a good job there, and i like this concept of urs on the fireball trails :thumbsup:

maybe u can try panning, focusing on the fire? though it's an untested wacky idea

no offense on this 2cents of mine :sweatsm:

 

[calebk]

Your concept is good, but the execution is a bit iffy. I feel that your shutter speed need not drop to such a slow speed. I think something like 1/20s is good enough. Right now, it's not just the sharpness on the dancer that is compromised, but there is camera shake throughout the image due to the slow shutter speed.

On colour, I think you can afford to aim for the correct white balance and still get a vibrant enough flame colour. Right now the whole image looks a bit too yellow for my taste. Fire has a much lower colour temperature than even tungsten lamps.

 

[catchlights]

there is no way to get sharp focus of the performer at such slow shutter speed.

I will try with smaller aperture with long shutter speed, using flash with rear sync.

 

[josephjoe]

Oh... thats a good point. never tout i can use it in such situation,,, Muz chase them again to try shoot. Funny thing was no one was using any flash on that time. All i could hear was shutter clicks... Guess no one knew about that!

 

[cabbySHE]

Basically, you'd almost got what you want.
Shooting as a bystander during a performance in a shopping mall sometimes need quick wits and a bit of guts ( might get into trouble ). Bcoz the stunt will be short and be over in awhile.

The following act only as a suggestion ( discretion required by individual ).

Move in close and low, frame the performer in the centre of the fireball ring, using landscape format...shoot and leave before the security approaches. ( can visualize or not ? )

 

[josephjoe]

You mean in this way its better?

 

[josephjoe]

A half body or a full body looks more complete?
Even my main motive is the Fire.

 

[cabbySHE]

The ring of fire is the main focal point and while it encompass the performer, as someone pointed out, an added strobe might be able to freeze the arm movement so that you will have sharpness and blur fire path at the same time.

the purpose of getting close and low is to get rid of all other distraction, like surrounding people, props of high heel shoe, musician etc which does not contribute to the picture.
A wide angle might be required. Half body is alright, but prefer the performer is facing the camera.

 

[night86mare]

less is more.

look at all your photos, do you not think that the other bystanders distract from your performer and fire ring?

do you think it would be better if you just exposed for the fire ring, rather than for all the surroundings?