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If you have some leftover sparklers from July 4th celebrations or other festivities, this little trick is sure to make some fantastic photos. There is more than one use for them besides burning your friend's fingers...
**** Absolute caution should be exercised to make sure of safety (non-flammable area, no alcohol, etc). Kids, do this ONLY with the supervision of your parents. ****
What you need:
Digital camera (any point and shoot will work as long as it has a night time scene setting or full manual)
Flash (you will need to be able to control when this fires)
Tripod (a table top tripod, or something you can rest the camera steadily on will work)
Sparklers (these are small fireworks sticks that burn for about 30 seconds)
A dark setting (your flash + the sparklers must be the only source of light)
Willing cohorts + patience
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| He can write his name in the snow too... |
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The principal behind this trick is simple if not readily obvious. In a totally dark setting, you can adjust the shutter speed to stay open for several seconds, recording a long exposure. While the shutter is open it will record all the light it “sees.” If you light the sparkler and wave it around, as Zach is doing in the first picture, it will record all the movements of the sparkler. You then use a flash at some point to light your friend for a moment in time. The end product will be a record of all the points of light of the sparkler + the picture from the flash. You can create all sorts of images, limited by your imagination + artistic intent. Julie made a nice picture frame to pose in, Dan demonstrated his ability to write his name (a skill conveniently picked up when he was 5), Zach threw a fireball with the help of some friends, they also outlined Zach’s body, and so on. The possibilities are endless and if you are easily entertained like me and my friends, the fun can go on for hours =)
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Directions:
- Set your camera up on a tripod (A tabletop will work, or some other stable structure. It is IMPERATIVE the camera be stable and not move.)
- Turn your camera into full manual mode. Night mode will work for point and shoot cameras. (For the full manual settings, the F stop will more or less be whatever you like. The shutter speed is the main adjustment. You can set this from 1 -30 seconds. The longer the exposure, the more time you have to draw with the sparkler)
- Make certain there are no other light sources (street lamps, floodlights, etc). Other light sources will create a ghosting effect because the other light source will reflect off your friend while he is moving back and forth.)
- Arm your friend with the sparklers and tell him how long the exposure is going to be. (This will let him know how long he has to draw and at what point he should stop and pose – about 1-2 seconds before the end of the exposure)
- Adjust your flash for rear curtain control or manual firing (rear curtain means the flash will fire just before the end of the exposure, instead of at the beginning which is the default. If you don’t have that feature you can still fire the flash manually just before the exposure ends to create the same effect.)
- Take the photo and watch your friend make a fool of himself. (I found it very helpful to keep a stopwatch on me so I would know when the camera was about to finish the exposure. I would yell for everyone to smile or whatever just before the flash would go off at the end.)
- Review the photo and decide what you want to adjust (i.e. the heart may be funny shaped or not quite what you wanted, so try again.)
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For more advanced photos:
- Set up the photo just as before, except you will need more than a few friends.
- Pose one friend in a position. (Zach struck the fireball pose for the duration of that particular photo, Dan struck his urination pose for his entire pic.)
- Have another friend take the sparkler and draw the action. (The quicker you move with the sparkler the smaller the streak of light. The slower you move the sparkler the thicker the streak. If you leave the sparkler in one spot, the camera will just keep recording the amount of light additively, making the ball of light bigger and brighter.)
- Before the flash fires at the end of the exposure, yell to get the extra friend out of the picture (as long as they aren’t in the picture when the flash goes off, they should not show up in the photo. Make sure when someone else draws with the sparkler, they wear darker colors and hold the sparkler far away from themselves. This will reduce the light from the sparkler adding their image to the photo.)
- Review the photo and adjust accordingly.
My average camera setting for most of the photos was an 8 second exposure with F 5.6 and an ISO of 100. You should be able to have lots of fun with this on a slow night. You are limited only by the types of sparklers you have access to (gold, red, green, etc) and your own creativity. You don’t need really high end gear, just good knowledge of how yours works and the principles behind this type of photo. Hope everyone has a safe + fun time with this =)
**** Absolute caution should be exercised to make sure of safety (non-flammable area, no alcohol, etc). Kids, do this ONLY with the supervision of your parents.****
Cheers,
Zaid
www.Zphotos.org
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| Burning on urination usually only means one thing... |
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