The Kronic

[Johnboy2978]

First time experimenting with smoke pictures. This didn't keep my interest nearly as long as playing with water drops but of the 20 or so pics I took I did like the clarity of this one. PS of course helped add some interest to it. Thoughts are certainly appreciated.

 

[billygoat]

I really like it, what was the process etc?

 

[Derrel]

Beautiful shot. I like the color gradient. The overall treatment, with the white hairline border on a black matte is nice, but you know, I think the old traditional method of having the border of the "matte" be proportioned at 1 unit left and right and 1 unit top and 1.5 units at the bottom would look better. Having the white hairline border perfectly centered within the black outer "matte" doesn't look as good as with the old 1:1:1:1.5 proportion. I think a taller black matte at the bottom would also make your signature look better too. Just MHO.

This is a very nice smoke picture. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Al-Wazeer]

I never get bored of smoke shots! They're always looks nice, including yours .

 

[mar1u5]

Nice work, love the colors.

 

[Johnboy2978]

Thanks for the comments guys. Setup was fairly easy. I had an incense stick burning in the middle of the table with a black background behind. To the left I had my speedflash with flags on it so that light would only hit the smoke and not the background. To the right I had a work lamp to illuminate the smoke so that the camera wouldn't have to hunt for focus as much. Inside PS, I selected the smoke and made it a new layer and used the gradient tool to give it some color. Viola.

Derrel, you mind showing me what you had in mind with the matte?

 

[Josh66]

I like this one a lot. I have never tried smoke pictures, and I think you have just inspired me to do so.

Very nice.

:thumbsup:

 

[Derrel]

Johnboy2978

Here is quick update to the original. All I did was expand the canvas size, allowing a larger border on the left,top,and right hand sides of the photograph, with each side being roughly "one unit". The bottom edge was given roughly "one and a half" units of black border area, and I pulled your signature downward a bit, and inward just a little bit. it has always been my experience that that professionally matted and framed art done by the most skilled, trained professionals uses a strategy of having a larger or deeper border on the bottom edge of the frame and matte, as a sort of visual "anchor".