Experimenting with burning steel wool.

OldGoat

I made a wire rope spinner for spinning burning wire wool and couldn't resist legging it to the beach to try a few spins.

Tokyo

Looks awesome - something I've wanted to try for a while now. See if you can find an old tunnel or an underpass, looks great when the sparks thrown off hit the tunnel wall and run down the side like a waterfall.

alb

I've no idea what you did, but these are fantastic.

Tokyo

alb wrote: »

I've no idea what you did, but these are fantastic.

I imagine its along the lines of tying a whisk or similar to the end of a piece of string, packing said whisk with steel wool, setting it alight, twirling it while photographing at a long exposure. There have been some beautiful (and award winning) photos using this technique.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/07/20/how-to-use-steel-wool-for-beautiful-light-painting-photographs/

Ricky91t

I did the same a few months ago, using a whisk and rope as said above. I'd recommend you buy a decent whisk as using a cheap one means it'll break while spinning and fire large clumps of burning steel wool in the direction of either you, or your friend standing up the cameras.

Saying that though, it is a lot of fun and can create some cool photos!

OldGoat

That shows nicely the difference in 'sparkcount' depending on the spinrate. Faster spin at eash end producing more fiewworks while the transition at a slower spinrate gives you a cleaner line. Nice idea, must try that.

OldGoat

Looking back at the two pics I posted and at a few others I have on the laptop I really, REALLY need a decent tutorial on colour balance.
All my shots (at 20+ seconds) are picking up the orange/tungston glow and I'm having issues getting a black sky without killing everything else. I'm on a slider frenzy hoping to hit the magical correct balance.

Am off to hunt through Lydia.com but if anyone has any pointers I'd love to hear them.

amdgilmore

You could start by lowering your iso.

There's no need to have it at 800 for a long exposure, and you can see there's a little bit of noise showing up on the sky as a result. Luminance noise is cumulative in long exposures, so 800 spread out over 20 seconds is not a good idea.

Knock it down to 100 or maybe 200 (or 400! whatever works) and see how that goes. The wool and sparks will be enough to light up the foreground a little and you'll get a darker sky.

And if that fails... use the adjustment brush in Lightroom to make local adjustments to exposure.

trooney

Agree with the above. Def bring your ISO back down, as there really is no need for it to be high if you're shooting a long exposure.

Here's a couple I did in Charleville, earlier this year. (all done at ISO 200) -





Its great fun, so long as you have a willing subject (plaudits to Jonnykitedude for his patience as a subject). Its also somewhat advisable to supply said subject with some protective equipment where possible. Safety glasses at the very least anyhoo. She be a cruel mistress, Fire.

OldGoat

amdgilmore wrote: »

You could start by lowering your iso.

There's no need to have it at 800 for a long exposure, and you can see there's a little bit of noise showing up on the sky as a result. Luminance noise is cumulative in long exposures, so 800 spread out over 20 seconds is not a good idea.

Knock it down to 100 or maybe 200 (or 400! whatever works) and see how that goes. The wool and sparks will be enough to light up the foreground a little and you'll get a darker sky.

And if that fails... use the adjustment brush in Lightroom to make local adjustments to exposure.

Ahh, yeah. The 800 ISO was a mistake, I never checked the settings for the first few shots.

Jonnykitedude

Ricky91t wrote: »

I did the same a few months ago, using a whisk and rope as said above. I'd recommend you buy a decent whisk as using a cheap one means it'll break while spinning and fire large clumps of burning steel wool in the direction of either you, or your friend standing up the cameras.]

Is that Ballyvourne College In Cork?

DeVore

Its very similar to the settings for fireworks. I took these at ISO 100 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/devoresphotos/sets/72157629917550623/ )

Definitely going to give steel wool a shot! Looks lovely...

T.

dcukhunter

These were from my first attempts with steel wool. I have to get out again some night for more.

megapixel

thatsnotmyname

A great bit of fun during the long winter nights
here's one I did in 2011