Into the Fire

Joseph S Wisniewski wrote:

Summon reserves of patience. This looks like one of those shots that will eat you alive trying to recreate and improve upon, and it's already essentially perfect.

Indeed, a lot of patience. And remaining still to avoid adding room turbulance, this is not the kind of shoot for instant gratification. I even found myself breathing more softly.

I would say it may be very hard to recreate this shot. The finger of ash really was the most un-repeatable part of this photo. It is almost as susceptible to air turbulence as the smoke.

Instead, I would like to try some different scenes in a similar theme. Multiple sticks, different angles. Maybe three stick fanned out and burning in unison.

I'm thinking small spot to backlight the smoke, the way I do with thinks like steam from a cup of tea, but I'm also thinking "there's enough smoke now" so I'm wondering if accentuating the smoke wouldn’t throw off the wonderful balance of this shot.

I did try to add some side/rear light, but between the big softboxes for modelling/focusing, the side/front flash and the strategically placed block out cardstock, I tend to run out of physical space to mount anything else. Projects like this are in a cobbled-together makeshift 'studio' that is very amateur.

The smoke in the original shot captured more highlights and blues, but in processing to get the background close to black, I had to sacrifice that. And this outcome... well in some ways I like it more, the dark smoke column feels a bit more 'mysterious'. It also makes for a better looking gradient from the flame

I shared a 'smoke only' photo from the same session, a couple of posts above. If for nothing else, I like it as a 'scene' that is a completely unique shot that can never exist again in the real world.