Benjamin von Wong’s advice on fire shooting

The young and talented international photographer and visual engineer Benjamin von Wong tells the story of his adventures with fire shooting.

The international photographer Von Wong, the designer Virginie Marcerou and the pyrotechnician Andrey DAS have worked together for a fashion photo shoot in Paris, where they combined amazing designer clothes with smoke, fire, and sparklers.

Perfect fire shooting example – Angel of Fire by visual engineer and photographer Benjamin von Wong

Von Wong said that one of the most challenging aspects during this project was the constant changing of camera settings, since the lighting conditions were different from moment to moment. As you can imagine, there were serious problems posed by the wind and the actual playing with fire.

The artist wants to help those who want to get into fire shooting by providing a several tips and tricks. A lot of research is needed before getting into this type of photography because you never know what could happen.

It is better to be safe than sorry, so Von Wong wants people to avoid things that may be overlooked for some reason. As stated above, the information is coming from a behind the scenes video of an amazing photoshoot that is making the rounds in the fashion world these days.

For those who have never experienced fire shooting before, von Wong has some advice

• Make sure you are in the presence of a professional at all times. Things will go wrong!
• Wear organic – not synthetic clothes – that will burn, not melt on your skin.
• Don’t get too close to the fire, keep a safe distance between you, your equipment and the fire source.
• Bring along safety materials, water, and a wet towel.
• Choose a less windy day or a location where wind won’t mess up too many of your shots.
• Master your camera, since the pyrotechnician has limited resources.
• It’s preferable to underexpose rather than overexpose.
• If you use flashes, make sure that the skin tones of the models are not too white or too orange.
• Try bracketing, since you don’t really know what your next effect will be; set your camera to shoot at a variety of exposure settings.
• Fast shutter speed helps a lot with capturing spitting fire.
• Slow shutter speed is best for capturing spinning fire.
• Think of the models involved, make sure they are comfortable.

We will surely hear more about this talented photographer and his experiments. For now, enjoy this behind the scenes video: