Smoky flavours

[sunita]

Okay, this has been tried and tested several times, I know, but I had to figure it out for myself too :D

Any comments/suggestions for improvement welcome!

http://sunita.smugmug.com/photos/232430188-M.jpg

http://sunita.smugmug.com/photos/232407961-M.jpg

http://sunita.smugmug.com/photos/232411777-M.jpg

http://sunita.smugmug.com/photos/232414688-M.jpg

http://sunita.smugmug.com/photos/232352581-M.jpg

[Awais Yaqub]

Beautiful pictures Sunita :wink

[tlee]

I want to try too!:D These are great--I like the color(s). The last one is fantastic!!

[sunita]

Thanks, Awais and TLee, for your kind comments. Glad you like them :-)
They are not that hard to get - the main trick is to get the lighting right and the rest is cropping and coloring in PS. There are several tutorials on the web, but if you need specifics, I'll be happy to help!

[Skippy]

Okay, this has been tried and tested several times, I know, but I had to figure it out for myself too :D

Any comments/suggestions for improvement welcome!


These are beautiful Sunita :clap
The very last image looks like a lovely silk ribbon.

You've done a great job of these, love the colours,
I am interested to know how you created these too.

Great choice of colours too :clap .... Skippy :D
.

[Lord Vetinari]

Lovely series Sunita - This is still on my to try list.
Brian V.

[leaforte]

I tried some tonight and couldn't even come close. Your colors are nice, and silky.

[sunita]

Thanks Skippy, Brian and Leaforte for your kind comments! :D

Okay, here's what I did. I first scouted the internet for tutorials on photographing smoke and came across Graham Jeffrey's site: http://www.sensitivelight.com/smoke2/. It seems like he is THE guru on capturing smoke...

Anyway, as he (and others) emphasize, lighting is key here and use of an external flash seems to be necessary. My set-up is a lot more crude - I put a black T-shirt over my desktop monitor and placed the burning incense stick in front of it. I placed my table lamp (from IKEA) to the right of and very close to the incense stick. Then, I sat in front of the incense and turned on my on-camera flash, set the f stop to 13 and the shutter speed to 1/200 and ISO 100 and clicked away using manual focus - very close to the beginning of the smoke or wherever the wisps seemed interesting. (I did all of this at night, btw). It helps to have a draft-free room - that way the smoke moves slowly, however, it becomes an issue after a few minutes in that it creates clouds of smoke that can creep into your photo.

Once I have enough photos where the wisps of smoke look almost white (they are the best 'quality' wise), I go to Photoshop and darken (or lighten) the b/g and introduce the colors. I used the gradient tool for the multicolor shots and the marquee tool for selecting the wisps vs/ b/g.

I think an off-camera flash would probabyl work better, maybe even allow you to go to lower f stops and higher shutter speeds, but I have't tried that as yet.

I updated my site with more photos from last night :
http://sunita.smugmug.com/gallery/3996509/

Well, that's pretty much it! Hope this helps and have fun! :thumb

[patricia kay]

Beautiful smoke pics.....they remind me of the Fractals i do...but now you have given details of how to do I will have a go.....have you ever merged a few together...could give an interesting picture???

Patricia........:D