Fun With Sparklers

People of all ages love sparklers. They bring out the child in us all. We all remember waving sparklers around as children. While it's still fun to wave sparklers around in the air it's become popular to capture those sparkly moments in pictures.

Sparklers make great photo opportunities, using a camera with a slow shutter speed you can draw with sparklers in the air and the pattern will appear in the pictures as a sparkly trail. Thinner lines can be created by moving the sparklers very quickly, thicker lines by moving the sparklers more slowly. You will need a manual camera or a digital camera with a night-time setting, a tripod or other stable surface, a dark setting and a group of friends.

If you'd just like to see the drawing made with the sparklers, don't use your flash. If you'd like to get your friends in the picture use a rear curtain flash setting, which means the flash will fire just before the end of the exposure, or if you're camera doesn't have that setting use the flash manually or a seperate light source, a quick flash of a bright flash light works well.

You'll need to find a dark location away from any light sources and a stable location for your camera, either a tripod or a table work well. Your camera will need to be set to either full manual or night-time exposure mode.

1. Set your camera on a stable surface and turn it on.
2. Make sure there are no other light sources around.
3. Hand out the sparklers and let your friends practice drawing and writing with them.
4. Once everyone's figured out what they'll be drawing, get them in place, let them know how long the exposure will be and light the sparklers at the same time (butane lighters work best for this).
5. Have everyone start drawing with their sparklers and then take the picture.
6. If you'll be using a flash let everyone know just before the flash so they can be ready and smiling.
7. After taking the picture review it and decide what to adjust. If the picture isn't quite right keep trying. You're only limited by the number of sparklers you have.

More advanced pictures can easily be created with the help of a friend with a lot of patience.

1. Set up to take the picture just as before. You will need at least 2 other people for this one.
2. Pose one friend in a position, such as looking like they're throwing something, they will need to hold this pose for the entire length of the exposure.
3. Have another friend take a sparkler and draw the action, such as a fireball coming from the posing friends hand.
4. Let the drawing friend know just before the flash goes off at the end of the picture, allowing them to get out of the way.
5. Review the picture and adjust accordingly, if done right you should have a picture of your friend throwing a fireball.

It helps if the friend who will be drawing wears dark clothing and holds the sparkler away from themself. This reduces the chance that the light from the sparkler will add them to the picture.

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