Smoke Photography: Please comment and critique

[D-B-J]

This is my first attempt.

Thoughts?

If anyone would like to know the full setup, just ask:mrgreen:

Regards,
Jake

 

[512_SIR II]

I like them both but I like the first one more for some reason. I think using different color lighting like green or blue can give it a really neat effect. Nice job

 

[D-B-J]

I like them both but I like the first one more for some reason. I think using different color lighting like green or blue can give it a really neat effect. Nice job

Thank you :mrgreen: I don't plan on messing with color yet, one step at a time.


Regards,
Jake

 

[Marc-Etienne]

Very nice! Smoke is a lot of fun. I'm still postprocessing my shoot that I did recently. It's crazy the shape that your imagination see when you look a it. The only down side, incense gives me headache!
Great job!

 

[D-B-J]

Very nice! Smoke is a lot of fun. I'm still postprocessing my shoot that I did recently. It's crazy the shape that your imagination see when you look a it. The only down side, incense gives me headache!
Great job!

Thank you:mrgreen: I would shoot for five minutes, then turn the fan on for five minutes, and repeat. Seemed to work pretty well.

 

[D-B-J]

anyone else?

 

[Robin Usagani]

I like them both but I like the first one more for some reason. I think using different color lighting like green or blue can give it a really neat effect. Nice job

No need to use colored gel. You can add color with post processing

 

[giulio1993]

cool!! how did you do that?

 

[bluetibby1]

I would like to know how you set it up!! Please.
Blue

 

[Robin Usagani]

here is an edit to add color

 

[D-B-J]

cool!! how did you do that?

So here is the setup,

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

 

[D-B-J]

here is an edit to add color

Interesting; how was this accomplished?

 

[Robin Usagani]

The best way to do it is to put a very wrong white balance to add color on your RAW. Then use photoshop to adjust hue&saturation. If you want multi color do another layer of hue&saturation with masking.

 

[KmH]

As usual, there is a ton of info on the Internet if one bothers to look:

how to photograph smoke - Bing

http://www.bing.com/search?q=smoke+photography&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n&sk=&sc=8-17

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fleetingbeauty-smoke/

 

[D-B-J]

As usual, there is a ton of info on the Internet if one bothers to look:

how to photograph smoke - Bing

smoke photography - Bing

Flickr: the fleeting beauty of smoke

Directed towards me? haha..