| Abstract images of smoke seem to be somewhat of | | | | you are using. Remember, you want enough depth |
| a fad at the minute, and if you do a search on the | | | | of field to account for the slight movement in smoke |
| Internet for abstract images of smoke you will find | | | | you will get between the camera and the |
| plenty of them. | | | | background. Set the camera to manual focus with an |
| This shouldn't stop you from giving this type of | | | | aperture of f11 or f16 and a shutter speed of about |
| photography a try. Done correctly you can produce | | | | 180. This isn't crucial as the flash now effectively |
| extremely beautiful and unique images that are | | | | becomes your shutter speed. Place the flash off to |
| worthy of framing and hanging on your wall or | | | | one side pointing across the camera's field of view. |
| someone else's! | | | | you may want to add a homemade snout to the |
| If you are interested in trying this type of abstract | | | | flash to keep stray light away from the lens and |
| photography yourself then the following work flow | | | | background. Set the flash for half full power as a |
| and setup that I use will get you well on your way | | | | starting point. |
| to getting some amazing shots. | | | | To set your focus, place a ruler vertically on the |
| What You Will Need | | | | point where your smoke will be rising and focus on |
| - Quiet room with windows | | | | this. Focusing on the smoke itself is next to |
| - Tripod | | | | impossible and will only frustrate you. |
| - Off camera flash | | | | Taking The Shotslight the incense stick and allow it |
| - Remote cable release | | | | to settle for a few seconds, then watch for patterns |
| - Incense sticks | | | | and fire a few frames. Check the shots on the |
| - Black cloth | | | | display of the camera to check exposure. Don't rely |
| The Best Room | | | | on the histogram but instead check the brightness of |
| Setup in a room that has windows as you will need | | | | the images themselves. If they are too bright or too |
| to open the windows now and again to allow the | | | | dark then adjust the flash output accordingly. Once |
| smoke to clear. | | | | you are happy with the exposure then watch for |
| Also, ensure that there are no nasty drafts from | | | | patterns forming through the view finder and shoot |
| open doors and that people will not be walking in and | | | | away. |
| out of the room. Smoke is extremely sensitive to | | | | You will need to stop every few minutes to open |
| the slightest change in air movement, even your | | | | the windows and allow the smoke to clear before |
| breath from a few feet away! I use the kitchen as I | | | | starting again. |
| have quick access to water when I need to put the | | | | Editing The Shots |
| incense stick out, there is also no smoke alarm in | | | | Once I have a few shots that I'm happy with, the |
| there! | | | | first thing I do is check that the background is |
| You may find that once you light the incense stick | | | | completely black. If any part of the background is |
| that the smoke tends to gravitate towards the | | | | visible I simply duplicate the background layer and |
| window in the room even when the window is shut. | | | | paint over the offending pixels with a black brush. |
| If this is the case you can use this to your | | | | Once this is out the way all manner of adjustments |
| advantage by shooting parallel to the window so that | | | | can be made. Two of the most popular are inverting |
| the smoke moves across the camera's field of view. | | | | the image and/or coloring the smoke. Inverting the |
| A point worth mentioning here is that you do not | | | | image turns all dark pixels light and light pixels dark. |
| need a dark room to do these kind of shots. Some | | | | This incidently is a very good way of checking if any |
| website tutorials state that you do but I have found | | | | of the background has been exposed as the pixels |
| this not to be the case if you close the curtains on | | | | will show up as black spots on the white background. |
| your windows when taking the shots. | | | | Once the image is inverted the plumes of smoke can |
| Setting Up The Equipment | | | | then be colored by adding a new layer, setting its |
| Fix your black cloth to a piece of cardboard or drape | | | | mode to color with low opacity and painting over the |
| it over a box. This will be the background for your | | | | plumes with different colored brushes. the variations |
| images. You can use any type of black material but | | | | for this technique are endless and you can literally |
| you want it to be as non reflective as possible. Black | | | | spend hours doing this! The coloring technique also |
| velvet is supposed to be the best but I find that you | | | | work s equally well on non inverted images too. |
| can get excellent results just using a plain black T | | | | I urge you to give this technique a go, it's actually |
| shirt. | | | | quite easy and with a bit of patience you can create |
| Setup the camera on the tripod facing the cloth at | | | | some stunning images. |
| about one to two feet away depending on the lens | | | | |