Sparklers

Sparklers

©JP Parmley

Continuing from yesterdays post on long exposures and moving lights made me remember a 4th of July wedding by brother and I shot about 5 years ago.  We were on the front lawn of the Patterson Homestead in Dayton, OH where the reception was being held.  Just before the end of the reception, they broke out sparklers for the guest and kids to play with.  This opened up a great opportunity to use the techniques in the previous post, but with a twist.  Getting the subject holding the light source to be completely visible, but not blurred from the motion was the goal.

To accomplish this, you need to make one minor, but important adjustment to how the flash is controlled.  Normally, when you use a flash, it fires at the beginning of the exposure.  To get these pictures below, you need to fire the flash at the end of the exposure.  This ability is called 2nd curtain or rear curtain.  In the Canon cameras you can set either first or second curtain in the custom functions. 

With a second curtain setting and an exposure of about 1/2-2 seconds you can get a picture like this even without a tripod.....just hold still during the picture.

Try this with someone moving a flashlight around and you will get the same effect.  Send me some pics using this technique and I will post them.

Canon 5D, 1/2 Sec, f9, ISO400

Enjoy,

JP