Smoke - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Smoke (/thread-6859.html)

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Smoke - Banded Drake - Feb 11, 2007

The weather is really too cold here for me to go out and shoot so i thought i would try something a little bit different for me . I have seen these a few times in different forums but i think there is something missing . Please tell me what yall think ...

1


2


3



Thanks for any comments .......... Shawn


PS i will tell yall the steps that i took to get these , its real fun and easy ( well kinda )

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Smoke - Polly - Feb 11, 2007

Banded Drake Wrote:The weather is really too cold here for me to go out and shoot so i thought i would try something a little bit different for me . I have seen these a few times in different forums but i think there is something missing . Please tell me what yall think ...

Thanks for any comments .......... Shawn


PS i will tell yall the steps that i took to get these , its real fun and easy ( well kinda )

I reckon you did a pretty good job, nice shapes to the smoke swirls, good work with the colouring. I particularly like the shape of the 3rd one, good 'corkscrew' type of swirl

I know how it's done 'cos I do it myself occasionally.

I feel you might get cleaner lines if you could aim for a slightly better depth of field. maybe have the smoke about 3ft from the background. I usually use a 50mm 2.8 lens and small aperture then I prefocus from about 2-3 ft away with about 3ft between smoke and background. Off camera flash about 2-3 ft to the right of the smoke and black reflectors on the opposite side.

I've yet to manage to capture a 'corkscrew' like your red one. I agree it can be a lot of fun.

Here are 2 of my own efforts shot as described above. f/16 and 1/30sec.





Polly

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Smoke - Polly - Feb 11, 2007

Jules ...... I really hate the way the forum layout scrunches up the picture and chops off the right side.

I can appreciate the need for ads but ... well ... y'know ...I really do feel the width of the ad frame is too much and therefore spoiling the forum photo display.

I just knew I couldn't resist saying so eventually - so now I've said it.


Polly

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Smoke - Petographer - Feb 11, 2007

Pretty funky looking images you two. Neat concept.

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Smoke - NT73 - Feb 11, 2007

Polly Wrote:Jules ...... I really hate the way the forum layout scrunches up the picture and chops off the right side.

I can appreciate the need for ads but ... well ... y'know ...I really do feel the width of the ad frame is too much and therefore spoiling the forum photo display.

I just knew I couldn't resist saying so eventually - so now I've said it.


Polly

Lovely smoky things.

I don't know wether you know or not, but if you double click the picture, it comes up in a new window. No ads, click again to magnify or shrink.

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Smoke - ABree - Feb 11, 2007

Great idea, I like the patterns and the colours.

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Smoke - navis01 - Feb 12, 2007

I have seen these types of images elsewhere but people are normally reluctant to share the method. I really like these images, they look very surreal and the colours are excellent. Are they added in post production? What do you burn to get the smoke?

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Smoke - Polly - Feb 12, 2007

NT73 Wrote:Lovely smoky things.

I don't know wether you know or not, but if you double click the picture, it comes up in a new window. No ads, click again to magnify or shrink.

I already know that but I'd rather not have to do so. It get more and more like that UK place for pic sizes - smaller and smaller dimensions or new windows. Neither option ideal for a photo forum imho.

Pol

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Smoke - Polly - Feb 12, 2007

navis01 Wrote:I have seen these types of images elsewhere but people are normally reluctant to share the method. I really like these images, they look very surreal and the colours are excellent. Are they added in post production? What do you burn to get the smoke?

I feel I'm hijacking the thread and can't decide on a more appropriate place to respond to Navis01 so please accept my sincerest apologies, Shawn.

I imagine everyone has their own specific method for this kind of smoke shot but here are a couple of shots showing how I did the ones I've posted here. I'd also be interested to know how Shawn went about getting his own shots.

I used a Joss Stick for the smoke - set the joss stick on an old kitchen stool about midway between the camera and the background. Background was a length of black velvet.

Camera on a tripod with cable release.
Off-camera flash set up to one side, black reflectors opposite side .... ideally the light source should be from one side only so the velvet and black reflectors stop any stray light from bouncing back off the flash.

Small aperture to aim for a fairly good depth of field between the smoke and the background - that helps to capture clean, crisp lines of smoke.

Pre-focussed by using the flame from the Joss stick (the room was comletely dark as I was using only the flashgun for lighting) .... then I simply kept firing and capturing smoke swirls and chose the ones i wanted for post processing.

For post processing - invert the image and that makes the black background turn white. Then use the channel mixer, or any method you prefer, to colour the smoke.

Two shots attached - one showing a copy of the pre-focussing test shot, second one is a rather messy snapshot of the entire set-up. Images resized to fit completely into the forum interface (I hope).

I hope you can make sense of all that.





Polly

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Smoke - Banded Drake - Feb 12, 2007

no worries Polly ,

the way i did my shots were with incense ( sp ) but my smoke isnt very thick so i think i need something different ,I was havin a hard time focusing . The other thing that i was doing " wrong " was there was a lot of light in the room . I guess i need to set my studio lights up .


The post processing was

auto levels

invert image

curves ( to get rid of some of the spill light )

then i duplicated layer , changed layer to color , painted with my color of choice , then adjusted opacity .

PS Polly , i like yours better , they are a lot more sharp. I am going to try this again with my studio lights and a black reflector . And see what i come up with ....

........... Shawn

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Smoke - Polly - Feb 12, 2007

Banded Drake Wrote:no worries Polly ,

the way i did my shots were with incense ( sp ) but my smoke isnt very thick so i think i need something different ,I was havin a hard time focusing . The other thing that i was doing " wrong " was there was a lot of light in the room . I guess i need to set my studio lights up .

<<snipped bt read>>

........... Shawn

I had the same problem of too little and too thin smoke first time I tried. I got around that by burning 2 joss sticks simultaneously and placed close together in a pot. One was shorter and almost burned down, second one was longer so I had 2 columns of smoke to aim for and those 2 columns were close enough together to combine at times. Much better smoke colums, much easier to capture.

Another mistake I made, first attempt, was to use a 100mm f.2.8. I got on much better with the 50mm lens which gave me a better chance of getting the smoke in the frame, especially when peeps kept coming through the door and making a draught which blew the smoke off course.

I followed David Nightingale's technique for the more successful attempts, though I'd still like to try again for some more interesting shaped smoke swirls.

Here's a link which also includes one of his own smoke pictures.

Along the top of the page - click on 'blog' then 'comments' and that should open a pop-up window where he was kind enough to explain in great detail how he went about it. He also comments on possible continuous lighting shutter speed, though I never tried with an form of continuous lighting myself.

Have fun.

Polly

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Smoke - Toad - Feb 12, 2007

Awesome thread and photos. Guess I'll have to try this as well, now that you 2 have blazed the trail.

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Smoke - Irma - Feb 12, 2007

Thanks Polly for showing your setup and the infor. It saves a lot of time when someone shares his/her experiences... Your pictures are wonderful....

Shawn, thanks for showing your pictures, I think I will try as well. All these kind of indoors pictures are perfect for this time of the year with ugly weather.

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Smoke - shuttertalk - Feb 12, 2007

Wow, this is great guys. Shawn, I love #1 and #3, though agree with the bluriness. Is it a focus issue?

Pol... regarding the ads, stay tuned.

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Smoke - navis01 - Feb 13, 2007

Top notch thanks for the info Polly and Shawn really appreciate it.

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Smoke - Banded Drake - Feb 13, 2007

shuttertalk Wrote:Wow, this is great guys. Shawn, I love #1 and #3, though agree with the bluriness. Is it a focus issue?

I think so . I really didnt have enough light on the smoke so i think there is more then just one thing wrong . The smoke being so " thin " makes it look even more OOF . Stayed tuned there will be more very soon . i aint giving up that easy .


....... Shawn

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Smoke - Wedding Shooter - Feb 13, 2007

These are really cool. Oh to have some more time in the day to play.

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Smoke - Banded Drake - Feb 14, 2007

Thanks WS , i will be posting more when i " get it right " .


..... Shawn

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Smoke - Pat - Feb 14, 2007

These smoke images are really something - dont have the patience to try this technique but love seeing the results of others

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Smoke - wulinka - Feb 15, 2007

beautiful pics both of you, shawn and polly!
I have seen similar things done with ink in water. Shawn, I love the colors in yours!

BTW, Polly, there is not scrunching and chopping occuring to me....


Uli

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Smoke - Banded Drake - Feb 15, 2007

Thanks Pat and Uli ,


.....Shawn

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