With my able bodied (at least beforehand) assistant, we ventured out into the dark. All the essentials to hand, camera, tripod, manual release, then the not so normal things, whisk, wire wool of varying types and thickness, 9v battery, lighter, fire extinguisher, bucket and 25L container of water. Apparently burning metal can be harmful to the person holding onto it, so we weren't taking "too many" risks.
We tried copper wool (to see if the different colour would work, it didn't really show) as well varying grades of steel wool, we found the best to be medium grade steel wool, as you can see from the results below, it did a pretty good job.
We had a couple of whisks with us to try, in the end we went with a large metal one (a plastic one that doesn't scratch your nice non-stick pans, really won't be up for this!). Find one that is solid and not likely to break upon being swung around with molten metal leaving it. We fixed it to a length of chain approximately 1m long with a keyring at the other end to hold on to. This seems to be quite a good way of working this.
When putting the wool into the whisk, make sure that you tease the wool apart, we found that adding it in in small batches of teased out wool worked best. When lighting the wool, you have a couple of options, a 9v battery applied to the wool will start the reaction, but a cigarette lighter is a good alternative.
Once you've got the hang of it (and not getting burned), try different things out (note: always keep the whisk moving) by your side, above and around your head, out in front of you (when doing this try walking towards the camera). Get creative.
Also, wear something on your head and things that you don't mind potentially getting burned (natural fabrics are probably best).
Thank you to Chlöe for being my "willing" test subject in these awesome photos.
These shots were taken at
ISO 100
f10 or f11
5s to 13s
using a Nikon D500 and Sigma Art 18mm-35mm
ISO 100
f10 or f11
5s to 13s
using a Nikon D500 and Sigma Art 18mm-35mm
No Chlöe was harmed (permanently) in the making of these photos.
