• Difficulty: Beginner
• Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hours

In this tutorial we are going to focus on shooting abstract pictures of fire and sparklers. At first glance many of you may think that it is pretty easy thing to do, but there are a number of challenges to take care of.

First, we are going to focus on everything that we are going to need for such a project. But before we start, let me say that this can be dangerous if you don't take precautions. Make sure you're flames or sparklers cannot fall on anything that will ignite. It's best to do this shoot outside or in a very well ventilated area. Be conscious of what is above and around your flames as well. If you are not an adult, please find one to help you do this. Envato and I cannot be held responsible for any damage or loss that comes as a result of this tutorial.

Needed Equipment

The first thing we need is a good camera. For this tutorial, I used my Canon 550D or also known as Rebel T2i and I think it is good enough for this purpose. But you can use any other type of camera that gives you enough manual control over ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc.

The next thing we need is a decent lens. For shoots in dark, I prefer prime lenses because they provide wider aperture values. For this shoot, I used a Canon 50mm f1.8, but you can use any other lens depending of what you have in your arsenal. This lens provides great quality for a low price. It will be helpful considering that for some of the pictures we are going to use very fast shutter speeds and we are going to need the widest aperture we can possible get from our lens.

Next in our list are the tripod, a fast memory card and our remote. Make sure you have a solid tripod that is stable enough to hold your camera body especially if you are using a battery grip. Using a remote is important if you are going to shoot this alone, because you need to fire up the flames and simultaneously start taking pictures. Another thing you need to keep in mind is fast memory card because you are going to shoot a lot of pictures in a short period of time and this might be a problem if you are using a slower card.

Need Materials

The very first thing in the list of all the materials is a lighter fluid. I have tried a lot of different fluids and figured out that lighter fluid provides the best quality flames. It costs $2-3 for 133ml so for $5-6 you can buy enough to shoot all night long.

The next thing we need is a barbeque lighter. This will help you avoid burning your hand trying to fire up the lighter fluid.

Next we need some kind of plank. I'm using a plastic kind of a plate that doesn't burn. This will be the base where we are going to put our lighter fluid and fire it up. Again, be very cautious when working with fire. Be sure the lighter fluid does not spill on anything you don't want to catch on fire.

In order to keep the fire alive longer, we are going to need cotton or gauze. You just need to spread the cotton or the gauze and drip some of the lighter fluid on top of it. Start with just a few drops, and add more if needed. When you are ready you can burn them up and you are going to see that the fire lasts 2-3 times longer.

Our next materials are very exiting. As you can see from the picture below here we have two different types of sparklers. The first one is a traditional sparkler and the second one is something meant to be put on party cakes. It creates a great sparkler type of effect and that’s why I decided to get some of those and try experimenting. Make sure you get more than 30-40 traditional sparklers, because one of them lasts around 30 seconds and considering the time you need to take some test photos to set your ISO, shutter and aperture you are going to burn at least 5-6 until you get the right settings. The rest of them are just fun to play with as you are going to see.

The next thing I used is a "helping hand" magnifier, as you can see below. You can use whatever you think will work, but this was the first thing I found in my home that I thought could hold a sparkler while it was burning. It really does a great job.

At this point, please make sure your clothing is not in danger of catching on fire. If you have long hair, make sure it is pull back and out of the way. If you're very confident with your flame-handling skills, be aware that some photographers have had success using a flammable spray to create interesting photos. If you choose to do something like this, please be sure that you are in an environment that will not catch fire.

Main Setup

It is time to set up our workspace. We are going to position the black card board at the back of everything after that we are going to put a chair which will hold our fireproof plate where we are going to burn up the lighter fluid. The chair should be around 1 meter away from the black background. Finally we are going to set up our camera 50-60 cm away from our chair in order to get as much detail as possible. You can see my setup below, notice that I used a wooden chair. Please do not follow my example. Use something that won't catch fire.

Framing the Shot and Taking Pictures

Our next task is to frame our shot and get ready to take some pictures. The preview http://www.photoshopdata.com/images/tuts/phototuts/flames/images you see are shot during the daytime but when you are going to start shooting you should do it at night or in a dark room so everything is dark or black and only the sparklers and the flames will stand out. Frame the shot as you like. I have some preview http://www.photoshopdata.com/images/tuts/phototuts/flames/images below showing how I framed my shot. Next, we are going to remove the helping hand magnifier and put some lighter fluid onto the plate. After that, we are going to fire up the fluid using our lighter.

For the preview pictures below, I used a wider angle lens on purpose so I can get enough details to preview my actions. When shooting flames make sure you get only the black background and nothing else in frame and make sure the plastic plate is right below the bottom end of the frame. Keep in mind that more fluid you use, the higher the flame will be.

Camera Settings

Probably the most important thing is the camera settings. There is no such a thing as a fixed setting for shooting flames or sparklers. It all comes to experimenting and finding the right look for you and also depends of what look you are going for. For shooting the sparklers, I found that aperture of f8, ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 1/4 to 1 second works best. You can start with these settings and play around to see what works best for you.

For shooting the flames I recommend you to use shutter speed of 1/4000 and more if you camera allows you. My camera max shutter speed is 1/4000 so I stick with it when shooting flames. After that set the ISO to 200 or 400, depending on how bright you want the flames to be and set the aperture between f3.5 and f5. Again, you can use these settings as a starting point and experiment. I used a fast shutter speed because flames move really fast and it is hard to get them sharp and looking frozen in time. You can see some example http://www.photoshopdata.com/images/tuts/phototuts/flames/images of the flames and sparklers below that I shot for this tutorial.

Final Image