Sparkler Exit

I finally have my first sparkler exit coming up tomorrow evening. I'm going to be working alone by this time of the night so I need to keep my set up pretty simple; probably just an on-camera 580.

So my question is about balancing the power of the flash with the ambient. I obviously don't want to blow away the darkness or the sparkle of the sparklers, but I'm guessing I will need to add light to the couple. So thoughts on the most reliable approach?

I'd like to get a few shots; one with the couple futher away shot wider and another with them closer. I'm thinking the flash will be in ETTL and maybe I will have the zoom on it set manually to something more narrow than my focal length, but I'm open to ideas and insights.

Thanks.

Don't over think it too much Robert. It will help the images if you can place a backlight. Just dial down the power of your strobe by 1/3 stop and let your camera do the rest. Keep your ISO around 1600 and shoot wide open, or nearly so, and you'll get some nice pics.

Do you have time to practice tonight?
A long dragged shutter would be really cool ...but risky.

Can you convince them to give you another 5 minutes after the exit? Either before they get in the car, or a mile down the road - just to do some of those cheesy cliche long-exposure sparkler portraits.

Actually, those long cliche sparkler shots are on the list, too, but I'm used to those.

I highly recommend a backlight, Jcoleman's awesome photo examples are in this thread I posted for CC after my first attempt: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1314549

Backlighting is awesome too because it lights up the smoke in the air.

I find that there's usually plenty of time to go set up and shoot a few test shots for the sparkler exit since the dance is winding down at that point.

I've never had much luck with using a flash during a sparkler exit, but putting a small video light on your hot shoe works extremely well.

I didn't even think about the effect the backlighting would have in bringing out all the smoke from the sparklers. Gotta do this! Thanks everyone.

nathancarter wrote in post #16981221
Do you have time to practice tonight?
A long dragged shutter would be really cool ...but risky.

Can you convince them to give you another 5 minutes after the exit? Either before they get in the car, or a mile down the road - just to do some of those cheesy cliche long-exposure sparkler portraits.

Yeah My wife draws the heart *LOL* Clients love it.

There's more than one way to do it, here's one I did without flash and only used the light from the sparklers.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nMDF​tU

^^ This. It's really all about how you'd feel most comfortable, given your style. If I was going to use a flash, I'd probably just drag the shutter a bit.

I'd love to see what you were able to accomplish with this Robert. Please post your results here.

I had one of these this weekend too. Amazingly, my 85L focused quite well at iso 6400, F2.0, 1/400th. Im glad I was at such a high shutter because the bride and groom literally RAN through the sparkler line. Anyway, Ill post it up tonight. Its a smidge grainy because even at those settings, I was a bit under but I think itll be fine in print.

Well, here's one of the shots from their exit:

Peacefield wrote in post #16993318
Well, here's one of the shots from their exit:

Though I would have loved having a flash set up to back light the smoke from the sparklers, both the day's schedule and the bride were far too chaotic so I just shot it straight on; ISO 3200, no flash, exposed for the scene. It would have been nice to add light and create something more creative, but a good outcome for such a basic approach. Thanks, everyone, for the insights.

This looks great! Your sparklers must have been brighter than mine or something. I think I was iso6400, 1/160th, f2 and it was still under exposed a bit.

The couple should be very happy with that.