Burning people -- tips please

D3Sshooter

As you might be aware I am working on a complete series on "in the name of religion". This shot is just a test shot and is composed of two pictures.
One with a burning pile of wood and de second is a studio picture with a girl tied to a pole.
I find it extremely difficult to get the flames right and the reflection on the girl.
Don't mind the model pose here, the final model will be half naked and looking upwards to a crucifix placed on a long stick by the silhouette of a Monck. It's all about burning people in the middle ages.

What I am after is some tricks on how to make the fire and model more realistic..
All comments welcome.

Dreadnote

I would recommend the Joel Grimes tutorial on composites at Kelby Training. By no stretch am I an expert on composites, but the three light system he uses seems to blend images together well, as it largely overcomes the issue of photos having different directions of light. Also, when doing composites, use smart objects in Photoshop so that you can adjust color the temperature of each photo after you have added them together. Hope that helps.

puzzledpaul

I've no experience whatsoever with this, but would burning some sort of appropriately posed / clad dummy be worth considering?

pp

jonh68

You have to place your lights where the flames would be coming from, preferably with a orange gel. The light on the model looks like its coming from top right. To make it look natural you will need your lights at the bottom shooting up.