Here we go. Not sure how the hand comes out through some monitors but I hope most are calibrated correctly. It might appear a bit dark.
The Roman god of fire, especially destructive fire, and craftsmanship. His forge is located beneath Mount Etna. It is here that he, together with his helpers, forges weapons for gods and heroes. Vulcanus is closely associated with Bona Dea with whom he shared the Volcanalia, observed on August 23. This festival took place during the height of the Mediterranean drought and the period of highest risk of fire. On the banks of the river Tiber, fires were lighted on which living fish were sacrificed. His temples were usually located outside the cities, due to the dangerous nature of fire. In 215 BCE his temple on the Circus Flaminius was inaugurated. In Ostia he was the chief god as the protector against fire in the grain storages. He is identified with the Greek Hephaestus.
Let's see where this comes in ;)
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Set Up The whole setup was very easy actually. I know Gaurawa was curious and I'm actually surprised you couldn't figure this out.
I used a tennis ball and poked a rod through the back side of it. Attached the rod through a piece of plywood and draped a black cloth over it. I soaked the ball with kerosene and lit it. Once the fuzzy part of the tennis ball melted away, I had the remote trigger in my left hand and I positioned my right hand underneath the ball. No cloning or wires necessary ;) Hardly any post processing. Shot in RAW and processed with RSE. Adjusted levels. Cropped and ran through Neat Image. Saved for web.
I took about 40 shots until the ball melted at the rod and came crashing down into a fiery ball of flame. I must have looked pretty silly chasing after a fiery ball inside my garage ;) A neighbor kid watched me the entire time from setup to chasing after the fiery ball. All he could muster was "Dude you're crazy!".
Post Challenge Thanks for those who left comments and emailed me that this should have placed higher ;) There are lots of great images in this challenge and I'm just happy that I placed in the Top 20 once again after my disappointing Self Portrait entry. For me, conveying the sense of Heat was a tough one. I decided to include my hand in the shot and "risk" hand and hair to get the right shot. It was definitely HOT alright ;) If I had a helper I think I would have exposed the hand better. As it were, I was too busy being nervous about hot melted rubber pieces dripping in my hand ;)
Thanks again everyone.
Statistics
Place: 17 out of 158 Avg (all users): 6.5109 Avg (commenters): 8.5000 Avg (participants): 6.2667 Avg (non-participants): 6.6290 Views since voting: 17668 Views during voting: 439 Votes: 184 Comments: 27 Favorites: 5 (view)
Sheesh, don´t really feel qualified to comment as you kicked my ass in this challenge but you wanted a comment so here it goes.
You specifically asked about the hand. I don´t see what bothers you so much, I think it looks pretty cool and "in sync" with the rest of the shot. However, if you mean you wanted more light on it, I would just suggest just that, light it with a monolight and make sure using a red/yellow filter of some sort as the light from the monolight would differ vastly from the lighting from the flames. If you were to do that, lighting it from above would be my suggestion, I like that the part that turns away from the flame is in shadow. Nice work my friend, 6.5+ and could easily have gone higher too.
As requested, here is an indepth critique of your submission. Please keep in mind this is a personal opinion.
Well Rikki, what can I say? ;-)
First of all, I really liked to read how you've arranged this shot. I'm sure a lot of people were thinking: "How did he do this?!"
Ok, about the image. You've managed to shoot a great photo again. The compo looks great and the shape of the flames are gorgeous. I think I might have cloned the top (left) part of the flame away, because it's pretty tight at the frame of the image.
I think the high ISO was a bit too high, right now the hand and the flames look very grainy and I think that didn't do good for the photo.
The hand at the bottom is great and with my monitor not too dark. I'm glad you included your hand, allthough it must have been hurting a lot.
Compliments to you for another great photo and for being so brave ;-)
I hope you've found this critique helpful. Good luck with future challenges!
We used to do this to tennis balls as kids - and play tennis at night - in the neighbours orchard using the rows of trees as a net. Never thought to take a photo of it though...
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