I managed to shoot this shot in my kitchen without burning down the whole apartment. Hung a black backdrop on a blank wall. The torches are 20 bamboo sticks purchased from Home Depot and bound with electrical tape and twine. The fuel is about a dozen fireplace matches stuck in the top of the bamboo.
The model is my fiancee, who was very patient throughout the entire process. From start to finish this shot took about 4 1/2 hours of prep work, half of which was spent on the body art, resulting in about 15 seconds of photography before the torches burned too low. The flames on her back are body paints. I used two floodlights with red and yellow flood light bulbs to illuminate her back.
Technical stuff:
Resized, cropped and rotated about 3 degrees clockwise. I then enhanced the red and increased the contrast.
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Interesting and original take on challenge. I see a couple of issues. First is your focus is quite soft. I'm not sure if you were trying for that effect or what camera you have. I know I sometimes have a hard time with my P&S camera in darker conditions trying to get a good focus. Your colors seem a little off. THis may be a white balance issue. Again, depending on your camera this may or may not be easy to fix. Also, your colors seem to be a little flat. I would first say that a lot of light would help this issue, but would defeat the purpose of the shot. Playing around with levels in PS can help also. Nice composition and framing. Keep trying the tough shots!
TC
Interesting idea--very--but something isn't working for me. I think it's that this scene should somehow be more mysterious, and the pink bands in her hair and the strong lighting on her back detract from the mystery.
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