Smoke Abstract for C & C

qleak · Mar 3, 2015

I don't normally go for such a central composition, but it this case I thought it fit the subject. What do you think?

qleak · Mar 4, 2015

I see people have looked, but no comments... It's okay take the gloves off. If you hate it, dislike it, are bored with it why?

Matt Glick · Mar 4, 2015

That's pretty sweet. Can you explain how you shot this?

sm4him · Mar 4, 2015

I love doing smoke photography, fun way to suck up hours at a time without realizing it!

I agree, I think the centered composition works okay here.

If this were mine, I think I might even try losing the top third segment of smoke and cropping this into a square, with just the lower two smoke elements.

Msteelio91 · Mar 4, 2015

I was a view without a comment, sooo: It's very wispy, and the curls are cool. I think the shot is nice, I'm just not super into smoke shots in the end.

qleak · Mar 4, 2015

Matt Glick said:
That's pretty sweet. Can you explain how you shot this?

Yes. Manual mode, kill the ambient. So I set it to ISO 100, max shutter sync speed (x250 on my d7100) rather higher f-stop without diffraction limiting ( f8 is just below the diffraction limit on my sigma 18-35mm).

I used 2 speedlights wirelessly triggered, one across from the left and one up from behind and underneath. Needs to either be manual flash or flash locked with ttl. I used manual since I wasn't entirely sure how to get the correct exposure with ttl

For freezing the motion with speedlights probably 1/2 power or more is very adequate t.1 approximately 1/1000 on my speedlights for that power.

Adjust placement / power of lights to try to ensure I'm not lighting the room. I added a 45 degree grid to the cross shot light. I still lit the room much more than anticipated. With the DR of my camera was surprised how much detail could be pulled from the shadows.

sm4him said:
I love doing smoke photography, fun way to suck up hours at a time without realizing it!

I agree, I think the centered composition works okay here.

If this were mine, I think I might even try losing the top third segment of smoke and cropping this into a square, with just the lower two smoke elements.

Thanks for the suggestions

I am thinking about brushing out the top portion of the third blob but keeping most of 3 intact.

Msteelio91 said:
I was a view without a comment, sooo: It's very wispy, and the curls are cool. I think the shot is nice, I'm just not super into smoke shots in the end.

Thanks for taking the time to comment

KmH · Mar 4, 2015

De-saturate the photo, which will effectively make it B&W.
I agree on a square crop and losing the top wisp but keep the curlicue.
You could also make it a negative so the background becomes white with black smoke in front.
There is a hot pixel and some light wisp to the left of the top swirl that I would Spot Healing Brush out.

I color my smoke photos.
I duplicate the de-saturated Background layer, change the blending mode to Soft Light, select the Brush tool, a color, size the brush, and 'paint' color where I want it.

Since you don't allow editing of your photos here are a couple of mine to show you what that can look like.
Made into a negative, cropped, colored, and framed:
Scheherazade

Rotated, cropped, colored, framed:
The Rose

qleak · Mar 4, 2015

KmH said:
De-saturate the photo, which will effectively make it B&W.
I agree on a square crop and losing the top wisp but keep the curlicue.
You could also make it a negative so the background becomes white with black smoke in front.
There is a hot pixel and some light wisp to the left of the top swirl that I would Spot Healing Brush out.

I color my smoke photos.
I duplicate the de-saturated Background layer, change the blending mode to Soft Light, select the Brush tool, a color, size the brush, and 'paint' color where I want it.

Since you don't allow editing of your photos here are a couple of mine to show you what that can look like.
Made into a negative, cropped, colored, and framed:
Scheherazade

Rotated, cropped, colored, framed:
The Rose

Thanks for the critique and all the pointers!

Do you find yourself ever removing noise from the smoke? I think I'm picking up some of the particulate matter even when well lit.

KmH · Mar 5, 2015

No. I don't recall needing to do any noise reduction on the smoke.

qleak · Mar 5, 2015

KmH said:
Since you don't allow editing of your photos here are a couple of mine to show you what that can look like.

I've been thinking about changing that for a while now, I just found the setting. No need to edit my photo to show me, I get the idea from your photos. Again much appreciated for your feedback