- (slurping noise) Mm, aah!
What's up everybody?
Peter McKinnon here and today,
today's a special day, and let me tell you why.
(funky guitar music)
I'm trying to get my dexterity back
'cause my hand is still,
thank you for the concern, by the way,
those of you who have been asking what happened.
I fell off my one-wheel, as some of you know.
But, I've been playing with the cards
to try and get some of my dexterity back.
So, it's working.
Things are looking up.
So today, we will be diving into the world
of steel wool photography.
Now, I have seen this all over the internet.
I've seen it on Instagram,
actually, it's pretty popular on Instagram
because it looks insane.
I've, self admitted, never done it before.
When Chris took me out for the first time
to do some steel wool photography,
I'd never done it.
I didn't know what to expect,
I had no idea how it worked.
I'd just seen these photos around on Instagram.
I've double tapped them myself.
But I really had no idea how it was physically done.
So I finally got the opportunity to do it.
Chris took me out, it was a great time.
He thought this would be something
you guys would really enjoy doing,
and I wholeheartedly agreed.
So, I'm really excited for Chris to
jump into the pilot seat today
and lead you guys on this steel wool photography journey.
If you guys don't remember Chris,
he's the one that took me wakesurfing.
(intense rock music)
Super cool guy, incredible creative force.
If you're not following him on YouTube,
he also does tutorials and cool stuff like that.
He's just relaunched his channel,
so links are below if you wanna check him out, recommended.
(heavy electronic music)
And if you're not following him on Instagram already,
come on!
Give him some love, he's an incredible photographer.
But before we get into that,
a quick shout-out to our sponsor for today's episode,
which are the fine folks over at Squarespace.
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If you wanna know more about that,
I did a video up here that you can also check out.
Links in the description.
You're welcome.
Alright, enough talking for me.
I'm gonna hand things over.
So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, Chris Hau!
- What's up, guys?
My name is Chris Hau.
Photographer, cinematographer, business owner.
I run a creative agency,
and I also have hair like Fabio,
and I cleaned it today just for this video.
So, I've been shooting since I was about eight years old,
but professionally, probably for like the last eight years.
When Pete used to shoot weddings
and it was actually my first wedding
and I had this crazy homemade video rig
that I made from like dollar store items.
I don't wanna talk about it,
that was a weird time in my life.
But, let's get back to what we're talking about today.
We are talking about steel wool photography.
This is one of the coolest trends
that you see on Instagram right now.
It kind of looks like people are just like spinning fire.
That they have like a dragon in their hand,
or something like that.
But, essentially what it is is that
you use the material steel wool.
You put in this device
that we're gonna show you how to make,
you light it on fire and you spin it
so that all the embers just kinda fly everywhere,
and when you combine that
within long-exposure on your camera,
you get some pretty dope results.
Kind of like this, this, or this.
So before we get into this,
I have to say this
'cause it's extremely important.
Safety comes first.
You guys are playing with fire at the end of the day.
My first experience with this is
I actually wasn't as safe as I should've been.
I almost lit a field on fire
'cause I was so pumped.
We don't want this to happen to you.
I don't wanna read about you in the news
about being like all these fields around the world
are setting on fire because Chris Hau
taught them how to use steel wool photography.
That's not happening today.
Be responsible.
Remember, at the end of the day,
you're supposed to have fun, not get burnt.
Just a reminder, if you guys are underage,
just make sure you have an adult with you.
And if you are overage, just bring a friend along.
This is one of those scenarios
where it's best to do it with a friend
or have somebody who can be there with you
to just keep an eye on stuff.
So, quick reminder, be safe, and we're moving on.
So step one, we're gonna delve into
the materials that you need to actually do this.
So, the basic things that you're gonna want
at the end of the day is a stainless steel whisk.
Now, I used a whisk, oop,
all the things are falling out of this.
I used a whisk that had plastic on it,
and as you can see,
it just melted it all over the place.
So, highly recommend for your first material
a stainless steel whisk.
Number two, you're gonna need some sort of string,
or in this case we used a cannon lanyard. (sparking noise)
Or you can also use like a bathtub chain.
Whatever is gonna be the safest option for you
at the end of the day.
Preferably use a material that's not gonna catch fire.
Okay, the second and actually
the most important part of this
is the steel wool.
Now, I would recommend that you use
a thin-grade steel wool.
You can find this at most local hardware stores.
It's actually used to clean like
stainless steel or metal objects
or in this image here,
it looks like a baby's crib.
But it's probably not a baby's crib,
but I would recommend that you use a thin material
because it actually burns a lot quicker and brighter.
So, this is the steel wool
when you take it out of the bag
you're gonna try to grab
a little strip of it that you can use.
You have to be really strong, like Arnold.
(laughs) This is not enough.
But you're gonna grab a little bit more
that you can use on this.
I'm making a mess of Pete's desk right now.
So, if you want some steel wool go to Pete's desk.
This is our device that we've made.
So you're gonna attach the string
to the stainless steel whisk,
and to apply it you just open up a section,
shove these steel wool into our whisk.
And when you're out on the field,
you're gonna take your lighter,
you're gonna light the steel wool,
and once the fire starts
just kind of creeping in a little bit,
you're gonna start spinning it
and that's what's gonna increase
the brightness and all the embers
are gonna start flying everywhere.
And when you combine that with your camera
with the right settings
that we're gonna talk about afterwards,
you're gonna get these extremely cool results.
So now that we've built our steel wool device,
we're gonna actually go out and take some photos now.
So, obviously being that this is a long exposure,
you're gonna need a tripod.
So, when you're on location,
find the composition that you're really pumped on.
There's a few different ways that you can capture this.
You can use a self-timer to release the shutter.
You can have a friend along with you,
and the third one is you can use the self-timer
that's actually built into most cameras.
Now you're gonna wanna find your focus.
If you're by yourself, throw a bag into the shot.
Where you're gonna be spinning your steel wool,
get that focus and then press the self-timer.
Give yourself about ten seconds to run into the frame,
remove the bag and start spinning your steel wool.
When you're done, head back to the camera
to see what results that you got.
Quick tip and something that I like to do a lot
is shoot in a really heavily concreted area.
Somewhere in the city might be good,
because then all the sparks fly around everywhere
and sometimes they'll actually build the outlines
of certain structures that you're in.
So let's say that you're in a bridge
and you're spinning it,
it'll actually outline the outside of the bridge.
That looks really cool.
I would also recommend shooting after it rains.
Number one, it is safer,
and number two, actually creates a lot of
really cool light reflections,
and can actually increase the quality of your shot.
So now let's talk about camera settings.
Grab your camera, get a wide angle lens, preferably.
Obviously, you want some context of where you're shooting.
But, use whatever lens that works
for your creative tastes.
Some of the settings that I like to use,
obviously it's always different
for each location that you're in,
but typically, you want to set your ISO
to somewhere around 50 or 100.
Your F-stop between 5.6 and nine,
that's usually a good sweet spot,
and your shutters open between 10 to 15 seconds.
Play around with these settings.
You're gonna get different exposures and different looks,
but this is generally the ones that I use
to get the results that I'm happy with.
So now comes the fun part,
and the part that your mom is gonna freak out about
is when you actually light the steel wool on fire.
And you start spinning it around and around
for the ten to fifteen seconds.
I could not say this enough.
Do not tough the steel wool after you've done spinning it
and it's still glowing.
It is so hot, this could hurt you.
This could melt something.
This could damage whatever you put it on.
So make sure you put it on a surface
that can withstand that heat
and let it cool down
before you go back to doing your next shot.
So, Pete and I went out the other night
to actually go out and try this.
He was actually pretty blown away
by some of the results that we were getting.
One thing he mentioned,
and one thing that a lot of people
always make a comment about,
is not this crazy like fire spinning thing,
it just looks like a bunch of
little tiny embers flying everywhere,
but when you combine that with your camera,
that's when you're actually getting the really cool results.
So, let's take one of the photos
that we took that day when I climbed on top of a tractor
and let's bring that into Lightroom.
Now, as you can see, this looks pretty wild,
but it's fairly dark.
So one thing that I like to do
is I just like to start by pressing
the Auto button over here.
Let's see how that image looks.
Not too bad, we can bring the exposure down just a touch.
Now as you can see in this section down here by the tractor
kind of looks kind of ugly.
So, we're gonna crop that stuff out.
Boom, that looks a little bit better.
Alright, let's change the white balance a touch.
I think this could look better if it was cooler,
so let's bring it down in the blues a bit more.
That's not looking too bad.
Alright, let's start playing with
some of our different faders and sliders over here.
Bring the shadows up just maybe a touch.
Bring the blacks down.
Now, one thing that I always like
is to boost the clarity.
So let's boost the clarity up here.
Around 25, that's lookin' pretty good.
Now, let's go down to our tone curve.
I like to use the Lights section a lot
in most of my photos
and it kind of works here, too.
I'll boost the light up here.
Kind of bring the darks down just a touch.
That's a little too dramatic.
It's not lookin' too bad there.
Again, this is just my workflow.
It is a creative field, so do what works best for you.
They're some of the tips and tricks that I use
to just get a photo that I think looks good.
Moving along, we're gonna go to our Adjustment Brush,
shortcut key is K.
We're gonna go down to Lighten,
I'm just gonna lighten this section here,
bring a little bit more attention to this area.
Now we're gonna go to our Gradient,
shortcut key is M.
We're gonna go to Darken.
Just darken the ground there
to bring a little bit more backed that.
And we're gonna head down to our HSL area here.
Bring the luminance value up on our yellow-orange section,
I think that's looking good,
maybe take the saturation down just a touch.
I'm gonna bring the exposure up just a little bit more
and
we're gonna bring our tension
by going to the Radial Filter,
and we're gonna darken around the outside.
So I'll switch that to Lighten.
That looks pretty good.
That's just a very basic edit.
So, spend a little bit more time
to get the results that you're pumped on.
Not that great.
That one looks awesome.
So, that's a quick little tutorial
on how to edit your steel wool photography photos.
When I first discovered steel wool photography,
I was kind of in a rut,
and I would see all these photos on Instagram
and I was like, "How are these guys doing it?"
So, I went out and taught myself
and it kind of like reignited my passion for photography.
(click) Pun intended, right guys?
So, hopefully this does the same for you.
I hope you learn something.
So, a big thank you for your time today.
Fun little fact is I actually started posting
to my YouTube channel again regularly,
and I think that's it for now.
I don't really have like an ending thing.
So, I guess over to Pete.
What, what, what do I do now?
Back to Pete in weather!
- Sometimes breaking out of that comfort zone
and exploring the unknown,
especially with an art form like photography,
can be just extremely exhilarating.
And as Chris said,
it's like a reinvigoration
of the passion that you loved so much.
So sometimes if things are feeling a little bit like,
I'm a bit bored or I'm tired of portraits,
going out and shooting star trails
or steel wool photography
and just mixing it up
and stepping into a zone that
you are completely unfamiliar with.
That is a great way to get the ball rolling again.
So, long way of saying
I hope you enjoyed it.
Definitely go try it out.
Hit that Like button if you liked this video
and smash if you so desire.
I won't hold it against you.
Subscribe if you aren't already.
And, and (zooming sound)
these are coming soon.
See you in the next video.
(gentle jazz music)