I Blame KmH...

sm4him · Nov 4, 2013

...for getting me started on smoke photos again!
As soon as I saw Keith's thread on incense smoke, I knew I needed to play around with it some more. I've only done them once, back last February. My results had been okay, but nothing great.
The videos posted in his thread were a HUGE help to me to figure out what I did wrong the first time, and I'll definitely be revisiting smoke photography soon.

But today, I was still too sore and aching to move around setting things up--so instead, I looked back at the old ones and played around with the raw files a bit to see what I could come up with. I was reasonably pleased with the results--but on the other hand, I'm also on muscle relaxants and painkillers, so I may be seeing LOTS of things in the smoke that the rest of you will be missing out on!! :lmao:

For the most part, I'm not going to say what *I* saw in these--but I'd love to hear what, if anything YOU see in them--like, is that pink elephant *really* sniffing glue??

Here's a few of my favorites:

1. This is the one exception, since I think it's fairly obvious from the coloration what I saw in it:

2. A white background, woot! I had NO idea how to do that; thanks Keith.

3.

4.

5. Same as #3 , but with a different color scheme

What a FUN way to spend a drugged-up, stuck at home kinda day!! :lmao:

Majeed Badizadegan · Nov 4, 2013

First one is amazing.

astroNikon · Nov 4, 2013

all of them are fantastic. The 2nd one looks like a flower ?

Are you doing this with a 500mm lens :thumbup:

manicmike · Nov 4, 2013

I'm curious how you got the split colors. All I know how to do is solid colors.

DarkShadow · Nov 4, 2013

First off glad your in once piece welcome back. Secondly nice shots very well done. Lastly how did you get split colors.

vintagesnaps · Nov 4, 2013

Way to recuperate!

I like the rose, the first one; to me the second one looks like a lily, a colorful one. I like the other more abstract ones too.

412 Burgh · Nov 4, 2013

Set a layer in photoshop and set the blending mode to color... Then paint or use a gradient. It's pretty simple

tirediron · Nov 4, 2013

We all do!

sm4him · Nov 5, 2013

astroNikon said:
all of them are fantastic. The 2nd one looks like a flower ?

Are you doing this with a 500mm lens :thumbup:

Haha, yeah. Smoke at 500mm! That's my NEXT challenge...
Pretty sure I did these with my Tokina 100mm macro lens.

manicmike said:
I'm curious how you got the split colors. All I know how to do is solid colors.

DarkShadow said:
First off glad your in once piece welcome back. Secondly nice shots very well done. Lastly how did you get split colors.

412 Burgh said:
Set a layer in photoshop and set the blending mode to color... Then paint or use a gradient. It's pretty simple

^Yep. What Burgh said. Here's the tutorial link from KmH's thread. I just followed the directions there. For the rose, I just made a custom gradient with red and green. I tried painting it instead to get more of the "stem" green, but didn't like it as well.

mishele · Nov 5, 2013

Smoke fun!! I remember buying cheap incense somewhere. After an hour of playing around I had the biggest headache ever!! hehe
I really like what you did w/ the first one. It does really look like a rose.
Hope you're feeling better, chickie!

IByte · Nov 5, 2013

#1 looks like a rose, and #3 fantastic colors on a black background, nice set overall.

Rachel1786 · Nov 5, 2013

Going to have to read that tutorial on my lunch break and give it a try,these are stunning. Can't wait to try this,already getting so many fun ideas and I've only been a member here for a few days : -)

MiFleur · Nov 5, 2013

I love this! I sure have to try it
in the third one, I see the eyes of a magician, upside down and # 2 is really nice with its spiraling pattern. Lots of fun!