Back in Black: All Aflame

This week has seen some different types of photos. Today, however, we'll look at how multiple photos can be blended to result in various images. As I was photographing various objects, I had the idea to photograph a match in the process of ignition. Those images didn't work out so well -- just big flaming balls. But, lighting the matches at their base and photographing them as the flame moved upward and ignited the match head did yield some interesting results.

For this project you will need a fire extinguisher, black backdrop, wooden matches, and a tiny binder clip. Put a match in the binder clip and remove the silver arms. Then rest the binder clip on your surface. Using another match or a lighter, like the base of the match and use your camera's rapid-fire mode starting as the flame creeps up the match until after it's burned the match head down a bit. Then you'll have a series of images. Some creative layer blending in Photoshop will result in wild, multi-colored flames. Experiment with various blending for various effects. Then, with a multi-colored image, you have a wide array of monochrome conversion options.

Here are some single flame images.




In this second image, the match head is in greater focus as the match stick had not started curling away from the camera as the fire burned through the wood.





Here's a monochrome conversion of the above image. The only conversion options for the flame images as shot are yellow and red. This is fairly limiting, creatively.


Here is a multi-image stack. The match, always placed in the same spot with a tripod, makes stacking easy. Different blending modes make overlapping colors green, blue, black, or other colors. 


This image, a monochrome conversion of the above color image, demonstrates that the color flame images can provide a nice array of dramatic options.


This is the color image that led to the monochrome image I shared on Sunday night.


Note that going slider-happy with the monochrome conversion can lead to bad results. This result came about from modest slider adjustments, leading to a flame which looks much like glass.