Another Bit of Smoke--Comment and Critique Please!

[D-B-J]

Just another one that i thought looked pretty good. Lemme know your thoughtts?

Regards,
Jake

 

[rateeg]

awesome!

 

[703Methane]

Really like this ! Could you fill me in on how you took this ?

 

[D-B-J]

Really like this ! Could you fill me in on how you took this ?

A tv table infront of my shower curtain rod, and a black tshirt hanging off the rod to serve as a backdrop(forgot to get one when i bought the incense!!). Then, on the right side, level with the tip of the incense, was a nikon sb600, triggered wirelessly from my D200. On either side i made little cards to direct the light straight across the table, so i didnt get flash spill which would cause lens flare. On the left side was a simple desk lamp pointed at the smoke, for focusing purposes. My camera was on about 1/250, and around f4, iso 200 if i remember correctly.

Processing:
I opened the images in lightroom 3, and turned up the vibrance, blacks, contrast, and clarity quite a bit (turning up the blacks was the most important, to ensure a perfectly pitch black background). Then i exported the two and opened them in photoshop, and used levels to turn up the blacks just a hair more. I then took the brush, set the opacity to about 40, and clicked around the top edges to darken them slightly, drawing the focus towards the bottom, and the more interesting aspects of the photo's.

Regards,
Jake

 

[703Methane]

Could you show me the original picture ? Sorry if I'm asking too much. I just want to know what to expect instead of throwing out all the ones that I take.

But thank you very much for your detailed 'fill in'.

 

[D-B-J]

As requested, SOOC. Kinda suckish. Smoke photography is all about the editing.

Regards,
Jake

 

[MohaimenK]

Jake, it's a little soft. Did you have focusing issue? I know the first time I used 50mm it sucked because it sux on focusing. It was much sharper w/ the 24-105

 

[703Methane]

Thank you for your help D-B-J , Greatly appreciated !

 

[naaaach]

Very, very nice. I never knew how much processing it took to get such a great smoke photo!

 

[MohaimenK]

but....here you go

 

[D-B-J]

but....here you go

Too "artsy" for me. What drew me into smoke photography was the complexity of the smoke, and by editing this way, it removes the subtle intracacies that i strive to capture.

Still, and interesting edit.

Regards,
Jake

 

[D-B-J]

Very, very nice. I never knew how much processing it took to get such a great smoke photo!

Took but five minutes. Just read alot of blogs and watch a ton of youtube videos, and you shall be a pro. Well, no. but still, thats all i did, and this was my first shoot.

Regards,
Jake