Conjuring up a blue flame

My photography the last few months has been focused on pictures of places I’ve visited like the National Cathedral and Museum of Fine Arts. While I was over a friend’s apartment for some grilled burgers, corn-on-cob and beer, he asked me if I was working on anything art-wise. I said I wasn’t working on anything at the moment. I realized while I was heading home I hadn’t worked on anything major in Photoshop for months, much longer than I realized. This past Sunday I spent literally the entire day working on this:

I’m pleased with the results. I really wanted the blue flame to look believable. I’ve seen other people’s attempts at making it look like their hand was on fire and almost every one I came across looked fake. To give the picture that level of believablity I had to get the lighting right. I used alot of layers, adding sutle blue light on the chair, my face and clothes. My first instinct was to almost go overboard with adding the blue to the picture, but I realized less is more. To really sell the effect of the blue flame shining on me and the chair, I made the areas that were farthest away from the flame less blue, like my right arm and the top of my head.

I spent alot of time on this project, but it was worth it. I didn’t just create the photo for the heck of it. It will be showcased on my about.me profile page: http://about.me/mattdailey . I think by having this photo it will be a sure way to stand out