Fire dancing

[pghollis1]

Hi,

we are heading off to Fiji for my son's wedding on the weekend, and they have organized a fire dancing performance. I've never shot one of these before. Should I be using a flash or would the light from the fire be sufficient to capture the dancers? Has anyone had any experience in this?

I'll be shooting with my D5100, probably with the 18-105mm. I do have the 50mm 1.8G, but find the 18-105 more flexible. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Paul.

[I @ M]

The first word that springs to mind is TRIPOD !!!!

Flash will go a long way towards killing the effect of the fire and to capture the fire dance to give some sort of sense of drama you will be better off using slowish shutter speeds to allow movement to appear in the dancer/s but not allow blur in the background and foreground.

If you want to freeze the action then high iso ( assuming it is at night ) and short shutter speeds will be needed with appropriate exposure for the flames and dancer/s.

[Granville]

And while the 18-105 may be more flexible, don't discount the benefit to fast shutter speed of the 50mm 1.8 over the 3.5 of the 18-105.

[pghollis1]

Well we're back from Fiji and had a ball. Here's a couple of shots of the fire dancers. Not really happy with them. Used flash with a slow shutter speed.


Fiji Wedding by pholl000, on Flickr


Fiji Wedding by pholl000, on Flickr

[enseth]

They turned out great although #1 looks a little dangerous for the performer. Hope he didn't have any baked beans for breaky.

[pghollis1]

Thanks. Yes, not sure I'd like to be doing the tricks in the first one!!