smoke art

Toothie

Toothie

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Ruth
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ok am going to give this a try after dinner today.

but before i do anyone got a tips or how guides??
 
thanks animal - i just found that myself and was about to post it

am a little worried as i only have one flash that has to be on camera and i never use photoshop oh well will keep me busy this pm will post results later am off to give it a try :D
 
lol thanks animal i might need them all i have succeed in doing is sinking out my living room :(
 
ok here is the set up,


using a 350d and a 430 speedlight on the camera.

the biggest problem seemed to be the smoke - ie not really enough of it and just going up in straight lines
these are straight from camera just converted from raw any ideas??





By this time i had 3 sticks alight as i really wasn't getting any smoke - should i just buy some different sicks?
 
Ok, no experience here but...

Take off the flash. It's illuminating the background. try lighting using spot lamps etc, from the side. This might not be strong enough though as i think you'll need flash to get a decent shutterspeed.
 
I've just read that tutorial too as this is something i'd like to try in the winter months, and i reckon the lighting is definitely the problem. Also, the tutorial used f/11 and your second shot does look a little OoF, so maybe that's a problem too?

I think the first shot you have would be fine if the background was black and you'd 'twanged' your joss-stick to create a little movement in the smoke.
 
The background is black fabric - i think you right lighten is the issue not sure how to solve the problem though:shrug:
 
try to get your joss stick a little further away from you BG, tie a piece of cotton to your Joss stick so you can tug it a little from a distance, I found waft is to much, and try upward side lighting
 
Have the flash off camera to the side, so it's at 90 degrees from the camera and put a snoot on it pointed at the smoke. Two flashes setup the same at either side would be better.
 
Okay... Not sure how else you could get it lit right then.

You really need side lighting for it to work right.
 
I dont have off camera flash as Dave says just trying things out really, am off sick from work cos i have a bad leg and im sooooo board, will try later with side lighting from the work lights i have.
 
Work lights? What kind of lights are they?

Whatever they are what you want is to narrow the light coming from them so that it just hits the smoke, not the background or the camera lens. If these are some kind of hot lights then depending on the wattage you may have a problem getting a high enough shutter speed to capture the smoke frozen.
 
I was quite pleased with this. I used a single halogen desk lamp pointing upwards under the smoke and a black background. Due to the relatively low power of the light, I used a fairly slow shutter speed which gave me soft images through movement of the smoke. I shot at least 50 pictures and selected a few which I coloured in Elements and combined three for this shot. I know it is not the classic style of smoke shot but for my first try I was happy

Fireflower.jpg
 
If you don't have off camera flash you need to get your on camera flash to direct the light from an off camera angle.

Turn the flash head so it points AWAY to the side of the subject. Bounce the light off a reflector held to the side, where you want the light to actually come from. Zoom the flash head manually to tighten it up, the bounce will naturally widen it and soften it quite alot. This will give you more flash "power" - you actually have the same power you started with, but you can use a smaller aperture.

To prevent the camera from burning out the background, look through the finder, notice the settings the camera gives you in aperture priority. Now start with that in manual settings (just copy them - say 1/15 @ f8) shoot and see what you get on the screen. If the background is black you are close. If the smoke is not bright enough it is the flash you need to alter - bring the reflector closer to the smoke and fire the same setting again - it should brighten the smoke a little.

Just work round a starting aperture and shutter speed that is sensible (above is a goodish starting point). Then either drag the shutter a little longer (go down half a stop to 1/10, or even 1/8 and see what happens.) If the flash is a bit weak -open up to f5.6

You will get better results by having the room dark - use a little red torch to work by so you don't trip over naything. Get everything set with light to see by, then turn off the lights to actually shoot. You could set the timer and then walk to the light switch counting and flick the room light off a second before the camera/flash fires. Then turn it on and go back to the camera.

You'll work it out how it suits you set up.
 
Glad to see that my tutorial is helping people after all this time. Sweet.

The secret os having th flash off camera and pointing slightly forward through the smoke plume towards the camera, you could try using a home made snoot to direct it more.. Also try manual focus, put a pencil in the place where the smoke will rise, manual focus then every shot should be right.. No more waiting for the AF to hunt in low light.

If you can't afford pocket wizards or similar why not get a cheap hot shoe pc sync from flea bay, and a pc sync cord, cost no more than a tenner, or a set of poverty wizards.

Good luck. I have some variations which i will be trying out in the coming winter months.
 
Thanks to the generosity of Mark.A i have a radio transmitter in the post so will wait fro it to arrive before i try again :D
 
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