Abstract Smoke
Sunday, July 20 2008
Click here to see photos.With my first experience with smoke photography, I learned it was extremely difficult and fun at the same time. The difficult part was the setup, and catching the right moment of smoke patterns. Once you get your setup, keep taking shots until you think you might have some good ones. There is a lot of processing involved, these photos are more like abstract paintings.
The Setup
The smoke is generated from incense, which gives a smooth stream of smoke that you are able to focus on. Make sure you get a few, and you have to close all the doors and windows because drafts, fans, or any wind can mess up a smooth stream of smoke.I was using two 500w lights with barn doors to keep flare off the lens and an additional cfl with an attached snoot. The lights were setup basically how it is drawn out in the image to the right. The lights need to be as close to behind the smoke as possible in order to highlight the smoke for the camera, but not quite directly behind the smoke where flair hits your lens. Therefore placing the lights at an angle to the camera works well, and I used a reflector on the opposite side just to reflect some of the light back to waste spillage.
The Camera
I actually didn’t even have enough light; because you can’t use a direct flash (as it overpowers your side lighting and reduces the highlights of the smoke) I had to raise my ISO in order to get a shutter speed above 1/200. You must have a fast shutter speed to capture the twirls and motion of the smoke. It is not like water where a blurred look creates a smooth effect. If you have enough light to bump up your f/stop to get a better depth of field, do so since smoke is quite three-dimensional.The smoke is quite random, so snap away and see what you get at the end. You can move your hand to try to get patterns or break up streams but overall its patience and a little bit of luck.
The Processing
There is actually a large amount of processing involved. In post production, the background will need to be smoothed out (with levels most likely) in order to get pure white or black. The colors are obtained by using hue and reducing saturation a bit. I recommend using some noise reduction and unsharp mask to smooth some of the smoke out. Also try inverting and readjusting hue to get different colors and effects.Extra Literature
Abstract smoke photography how-toGetting Started with Smoke Photography
