Or, "How do I make it look like I've trapped vengeful spirits?" Here are some samples. Different things burn in different colors - here, blue is alcohol and yellow is lighter fluid (like for a barbecue). Buy it by the gallon, you'll use it. Denatured alcohol works, but its blue is just barely visible - it doesn't cast very much light. Lighter fluid is cheap by the gallon, bright, and pretty easy to get. I'll be trying citronella tonight.


Spirits. Put a small amount of alcohol (several drops in this size) in a jar, roll it around to coat the glass. Light it and it will burn in a sputtery fashion - too narrow of a jar and it won't burn at all. Champagne glasses are too narrow, wine glasses are about right. The streamers are me relighting the jar because it kept going out (too narrow to get airflow).


Grill lighter fluid. You'll want a long lighter - I use a brazing torch, an aim-n-flame works too. Like most flammable liquids, only the fumes of this are flammable - but you have to heat up lighter fluid for it to emit enough fumes to burn. And then it'll burn hair off your hand if you're using a bic lighter, and who really wants crispy stubble?


If you're in a place where you won't set anything on fire with accidental spills, and nobody will see flickery flames to call the fire department, this looks pretty cool in buildings. Aurelie is sitting next to a firecup (Corningware dishes are heatproof, as long as you don't drop hot ones in water they're fine), with others lighting the columns. She's backlit with the rainbowgun, which looks downright blue next to the fire. You white balance people will want to shoot in RAW or use tungsten, and any other light source will look blue.


Here's Shutter spinning poi. Even his kerosene wicks look white next to the lighter fluid burning. This much fire made the drain heat up pretty significantly.

So that's some of what you can do. Alcohol-based things have enough fumes to spark right up, but you have to warm up lighter fluid for it to catch. Any questions?

What types of alcohol work best?

Posted by Steed What types of alcohol work best?

Everclear works well, denatured alcohol is cheaper. I haven't experimented enough yet to really tell you. Alcohols all seem to be dim - but that's good for adding coloring chemicals to the fire. Mixing the dim blue with any color drowns out the blue.

Also, the bright yellow is "Starter fluid," not lighter fluid as I'd written above.

snail...i dont want to be a party pooper but have u given any thought to the possibility of flammable gas pockets underground? im pretty sure u could turn yourself into escargot with a little bad luck if u were in a sewage/combined tunnel. maybe im being paranoid. in addition this doesn't mean im not gonna try some of these...lol.

Posted by Traxion snail...i dont want to be a party pooper but have u given any thought to the possibility of flammable gas pockets underground? im pretty sure u could turn yourself into escargot with a little bad luck if u were in a sewage/combined tunnel. maybe im being paranoid. in addition this doesn't mean im not gonna try some of these...lol.

Well, there's a reason I do these in drains with good airflow - if there's gases coming through, it's probably air coming from the surface. If I find enough butane feeding into a drain to make wind, I was going to die of it anyway.

well put, friend.

i think ive got an amazing idea. no tesla coils...im not that cool. what if we got an old oscillating fan, removed the front cage to expose the fan blades and attached a stick of a different length to each blade. we could set the fan on a stool or something and each stick would have a dif light source attached to it.

maybe something like this...

the shortest stick=glowstick

next stick=led

next stick=glow in the dark paint

longest stick=steel wool

set the cam for a 5-10 sec exposure, snap glowstick-turn on led-charge the glowpaint with the brightest light youve got and ignite the steel wool. turn on the fan and jump in front of the stool. remote trigger the cam and end up with a pic of a huge fire and neon flower or something behind an otherwise normal self portrait! if u can borrow a rechargeable powerstation the rest could be had for $10-15. why dont we both do one and in a week or so we'll compare pix...u game?

You could also make one of these:

http://www.twincit...rials/light-wheel/

Posted by Traxion well put, friend. i think ive got an amazing idea. no tesla coils...im not that cool. what if we got an old oscillating fan, removed the front cage to expose the fan blades and attached a stick of a different length to each blade. we could set the fan on a stool or something and each stick would have a dif light source attached to it. maybe something like this... the shortest stick=glowstick next stick=led next stick=glow in the dark paint longest stick=steel wool set the cam for a 5-10 sec exposure, snap glowstick-turn on led-charge the glowpaint with the brightest light youve got and ignite the steel wool. turn on the fan and jump in front of the stool. remote trigger the cam and end up with a pic of a huge fire and neon flower or something behind an otherwise normal self portrait! if u can borrow a rechargeable powerstation the rest could be had for $10-15. why dont we both do one and in a week or so we'll compare pix...u game?

You'd need the steel wool farthest in, because if it spins fast it glows far too brightly. On the other hand, an extremely long exposure would balance everything once the steel wool on the outside goes out after throwing slag everywhere. It'd be tricky to get right...

I don't have a fan like that. I do have bike wheels though...