Advice When Shooting With Fog Machine

[smoke665]

I've purchased a small water based fog machine to add to a shoot coming up. This will be in studio, under multiple lights. Any general advice for lighting???

 

[tirediron]

Turn off any smoke detectors you have in the area.

 

[smoke665]

Turn off any smoke detectors you have in the area.

Oh crap just realized that may be a problem. I just realized they are all hardwired to the central alarm system. I need to see if I can selectively turn them off at the keypad. I'm using water based fog, will that still set them off????? Also planing on running an output hose through a cooler full of ice to hopefully make it lay low to the floor.

 

[Derrel]

I've purchased a small water based fog machine to add to a shoot coming up. This will be in studio, under multiple lights. Any general advice for lighting???

Make sure your lens's front and rear elements are immaculately clean and free of any slight film from environmental conditions or camera case foams,etc.. Use a lens hood. Perhaps even rig up a cardboard or other type of flag that throws a shadow on your lens front, in order to get maximum "fog effect" and not have any flaring of the lens, especially if you have any back- or side-lighting of the fog. You want the lens to produce maximum contrast levels, so...keep it hooded, and flagged if needed.

Lighting? You might try using a harder than normal light to side- or back-light to light the fog itself, perhaps something like one of the Buff 7-inch to 10-inch metal reflectors, or an undiffused speedlight, something that will create millions upon millions of tiny, hard-lit water vapor micro-droplets that make up the fog.

I hope you have a great shoot.!

 

[tirediron]

If you can't turn them off, gaf tape should seal them up nicely, but yes, stage smoke will definitely set them off (Go ahead... ask me how I know...). As Derrel mentions, keep things CLEAN and go with a harder-than-normal lighting plan. I like a single, snooted light through fog, 'though that does tend to be more of a Halloween type of thing.

 

[mrca]

Back light, use grids and gels. Remember you are taking the humidity level up really high. I did a shoot in CA in a garage with no ac. It was 105 outside, hotter inside, hot lights and my fog machine puts out huge amounts of fog/humidity.

 

[Jeff1546 46]

I look forward to seeing your results.....

 

[smoke665]

Back light, use grids and gels. Remember you are taking the humidity level up really high. I did a shoot in CA in a garage with no ac. It was 105 outside, hotter inside, hot lights and my fog machine puts out huge amounts of fog/humidity.

Fortunately our garage is in our finished basement, so it stays warm in winter and cool in the summer. I'm hoping I can duplicate a low lying early morning fog without it going everywhere. So rather then a lot of light on it, I'll probably light it just enough to get the hint that it's there.

I look forward to seeing your results.....

It's an ongoing process Jeff. My wife and I get into the themed shoots, it's a hobby. We don't spend a lot of money, most items are gleaned from thrift stores, antique stores, junk stores, vintage clothing stores, etc. (think adult scavenger hunt). Scored big time in a GA antique store two weeks ago, even got a couple of items for a future shoot I have in mind. We've been gathering up stuff for the past three weeks off and on, and are almost done. Will start staging everything and doing test shots toward the end of next week.

 

[ac12]

I had one experience with a fog machine at a school dance, and it was BAD.
If any of that fog gets between the flash/light and the subject, it will reflect the light, creating a glare/hot spot.
So keep the lights high and the fog low.

I suggest practicing with the fog machine to see if you can control the height of the fog.

 

[smoke665]

Had a chance to play with the fog machine tonight. It's not big or expensive but it seems to put out more then enough "fog" for my needs. Now to rig up a way of cooling it so it lays low to the floor, then it will be time to start setting up everything.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Where my one smoke alarm used to be, it'd go off if I had a pot of soup/stew or whatever simmering on the stove and just took off the lid... yes, the alarm got moved elsewhere.

My experience with real fog has been shooting hockey, late in the season when it gets unseasonably warm, not much you can do when you can't see much thru it much less focus thru the fog or thru the fogged up glass! lol This project sounds... interesting!

 

[smoke665]

Working on set till the back pain drove me to the recliner Lot of improvement today over yesterday, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to complete the assembly. I did get to experiment with the fog machine. Straight out of machine, the fog is to hot, it rises quickly and fills the whole studio in seconds. I took the hose off my shop vac, filled it with some handfuls of ice, and put one end over the outlet on the fog machine. Voila, it produced a perfect dense blanket of fog about a foot thick that laid close to the floor without rising. Using the wand you can literally "pour" fog where you want it. Now on to finish the set and set up the lights. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.

 

[SnapGeek]

Some good tips here. I'll have to take them in account when I try to work with fog machines or even smoke bombs

 

[vin88]

I've purchased a small water based fog machine to add to a shoot coming up. This will be in studio, under multiple lights. Any general advice for lighting???

good show ! vin

 

[vin88]

Turn off any smoke detectors you have in the area.

Oh crap just realized that may be a problem. I just realized they are all hardwired to the central alarm system. I need to see if I can selectively turn them off at the keypad. I'm using water based fog, will that still set them off????? Also planing on running an output hose through a cooler full of ice to hopefully make it lay low to the floor.

just turn off the alarm system - oh crap, the fire dept. is en rought. vin