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13/01/2013

Steel Wool Photography

So I recently got a chance to take part in a workshop for steel wool photography!
To get the effect you need a DSLR, a tripod/steady hands, steel wool, a whisk and some sort of strap.

Basically you attach the strap to the whisk, put the steel wool inside the whisk (making sure its NOT going to fall out!), light the wool on fire and spin it around. 

By using a long shutter speed you can capture the entire path the whisk creates and by using a small stop (large f number) you ensure that all the sparks are in focus. The settings they recommended to us were: 

  • Aperture greater than f/5.6
  • ISO 100
  • Manual Mode
  • 5+ seconds shutter speed (I thought a really long shutter speed of 30 seconds worked well because it brightened the picture and captured every single spark!)
  • Self timer of 2 seconds (so that when you shoot there isn't any shake, you can also use a remote if you have one
Apart from the fact that it was absolutely FREEZING outside the workshop was so much fun and I think the results were fantastic! I brightened the photos up a bit on photoshop and here are the end results.










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