Smoke

Capturing lines and patterns of smoke rising into the air in a photograph can lead to interesting results. With the proper tools, lighting set up, and with different camera settings, you can begin to experiment with smoke in your pictures.

The set up is quick easy and fun!

-First set and hang a black background on a wall behind the area you are going to have the smoke rising from. In my case, i used a dark background and a dark blue background.

-Arrange your studio lighting (strobes, flash etc..) so that it shines toward the background and covers the entire area. In my case, i had two lights from each side pointing at each other and one slightly pointed at a lower angle aiming at the smoke and my background. There is no right or wrong way, simply experiment.

- Use a fast shutter speed to capture the smoke. Start with 1/250 and go from there.

- To help make the smoke appear more crisp and focused use a high aperture such as F/8 or higher

- Try to use manual focusing as the camera might have difficulty trying to focus, because of the dark areas.

- Use filters on your flash. It really boost the colors! In my case, i had a light blue and a light magenta filter. Both of them together works really well.

- And last and not least , light only one incense at a time ;)
You don`t want to suffocate in the smoke ;)

Enjoy!

More to come...