Shooting the Thumbuakar Performance is always a challenge. For those who don't understand how fire works, this is a good opportunity to learn something. Fire that burns longer becomes more intense, the more intense, the "whiter" it becomes, and that leads to overexposure.
So by deliberately under-exposing the image, you have set up the camera to be ready to expose for the big fireball flames. However that leaves you with a lot of shots that are nothing but black and small flames (either the before or the after sequences). But when you get it right, it's there and just nice.
With a nice fireball image, most of the time, the performer is going to look slightly dim and under-exposed. To get around this, duplicate the layer (CMD+J) and set the blend mode of the duplicated layer to Screen. This brightens up the entire image, leaving the fireball over-exposed. How now??
Click on the Mask icon on the duplicated layer, select a black brush with opacity set to 100% and paint over the flame. Take care when working on the edges as usual.
If the performer still looks dark, duplicate the duplicated layer, and the blend mode by default would be screen. Adjust opacity of the 2nd duplicated layer if the result is too bright.
Now you know the trick to shooting wonderful images of fire performers!
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