1st shot at doing Smoke Photography (C&C Welcome)

Trblmkr · Mar 17, 2014

Been a lot of snowing here lately, and just too friggin cold to want to go outside, so I tried something new.. Smoke Photography
I got the right idea from looking around and watching youtube video's, but the one thing nobody mentioned is the difficulty to focus.
Started out using a tripod and very quickly realized this was not the right approach as the smoke goes where it wants. Once I got past this issue, it was all fun. Took close to 400 pictures and here are a few that I've processed in Lightroom for initial exposure/contrast/clarity etc. Some were edited in Photoshop using layers and masks.

All shots were done on manual mode
ISO 100
1/125sec
F/8.0
Auto WB

1. This one I started out as blue but it was blue wanted more punch. So this I took into Photoshop, copied it and flipped it then I layered them together and used a fill layer to add more color.

20140309 Smoke 089-Combined by Dan_Girard, on Flickr

2. I actually got the idea from this forum as I was looking through other peoples pictures

20140309 Smoke 275-With Flame by Dan_Girard, on Flickr

3. This was the first one I inverted and I was blown away by the colors and dynamics

20140309 Smoke 278-Inverted by Dan_Girard, on Flickr

4. This is pretty much straight out of the camera, only adjustments were in Lightroom

20140309 Smoke 313 by Dan_Girard, on Flickr

5.

20140309 Smoke 369 by Dan_Girard, on Flickr

EOV · Mar 17, 2014

Wow. For a first shot I think you hit a bullseye here. The last one is very creative and my favorite. The one with the spoon reminds me of the drug culture. Overall I love the colors. Thanks for sharing.

jenko · Mar 17, 2014

Pretty cool! #3 is my fav. I also like the smoky glass.

mmaria · Mar 17, 2014

niceee

BrickHouse · Mar 17, 2014

Holy crap. Those are awesome!

photofree · Mar 17, 2014

I am impressed.

profound thinking about stuff

kschalo · Mar 17, 2014

I love 1, 4 and 5! The smoke in the glass is a great idea!

Trblmkr · Mar 17, 2014

I'm trying to figure out which two I should enter for my local photo club's "Smoke and Clouds" So you guys are helping me decide. So far looks like everybody loves #5 the best.

manicmike · Mar 17, 2014

Very nice job. The spoon one is my favorite. Mind I ask how you managed to pull off the smoke in the spoon?

Trblmkr · Mar 17, 2014

manicmike said:
Very nice job. The spoon one is my favorite. Mind I ask how you managed to pull off the smoke in the spoon?

Sure.. I had to hold the spoon really steady and wait for the smoke to go straight at the bottom so it would flow evenly over the spoon. Of course the smoke didn't want to cooperate so I kept having to move the spoon slowly over the steady stream and refocus the camera. And then I had to wait for just the right amount of smoke on top of the spoon. It was probably the hardest picture I shot over the week.