Watch Photographers Create a Composite with Light Painted Ground Fire

Photography Tips

Painting with light is a popular photographic technique for those who love to create experimental images after dark. Most light painters use LED lights and glow sticks to add special effects and luminous shapes to their images. Some more daring photographers use fire.

Frederic Amadu‘s take on light painting involved creating a dramatic ring of fire at Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Take a look at a video of the photo shoot:

The behind the scenes video above shows the photographer patiently directing his models to jump in particular ways while he photographs. Amadu used strategically placed strobes to freeze his models in mid-air–a process that seems to have taken a fair amount of time. After all of the models had been photographed, he lit a rope on fire and captured a long exposure with a person dragging the rope in a perfect circle around a center point.

To make his final image, Amadu combined all of his photos into a creative composite with the models superimposed over the flames.

Composite photographs such as this one require planning, time, and advanced post-processing skills. Seeing the work that goes into these sorts of light painting shots with fire makes them all the more impressive.