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I tried this technique a week ago and one of the instructions hawkjh posted is particularly important: manual focus at the incense stick and then shooting as many pictures you may want.
Also, if you have Photoshop or other good post processing tool, you may also want to invert the image and colorize parts of the smoke or, if you are shooting RAW and want to use the regular smoke picture without conversion, I found out that playing with the white balance setting can enhance the images.
Here are my first attempts from last week:
![[ Dancer in Red ]](http://static.flickr.com/90/219217446_aa4a80cb62_m.jpg) ![[ After the Wine ]](http://static.flickr.com/89/219217443_ca36d60f02_m.jpg) ![[ Tourbillion ]](http://static.flickr.com/64/219934505_43ea875b04_m.jpg)
Originally posted 23 months ago.
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RNEVES edited this topic 23 months ago.
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Thanks for your instructions hawkjh!
I think I'm going to try again tonight, I tried a week ago but nothing but out of focus shots... Great levels tip by the way! I used to get really grey-ish backgrounds. I'm pleased that at least that one is solved...
Originally posted 23 months ago.
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Accolady edited this topic 23 months ago.
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Aiming the flash upwards (if you can get it off camera) might help, but the benefit with smoke is the high contrast between foreground and background ... this allows you to use the levels setting in photoshop to a nice black easily.
The only other thing you could do is put distance between the subject and the black background so that the flash doesn't reach it ... relies on you having a large black background though.
Love the idea of bubbles though ... will give it a go !
@rneves: Wow !! Fantastic shots and great idea !
John
Posted 23 months ago.
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No need for a sofa, if you've got a joss stick. I first tried it with candles (bad idea), but joss sticks are perfect.
Posted 22 months ago.
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wow those are great
Posted 22 months ago.
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awsome - am gona try it
Posted 22 months ago.
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Great post! Thanks for these pointers... Am definitely gonna try it. Don't have an external flash though. Will make use of something else :)
Posted 22 months ago.
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Thanks for the tips, I love the effect!
Posted 19 months ago.
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I used this technique awhile ago and got these on my first couple of tries: 
Posted 19 months ago.
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Thank you for this tutorial...Can hardly wait to try some
Posted 19 months ago.
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Wow, this is really interesting. I've wondered how people do those kind of shots before. Can't wait to try this out too. Great tutorial!
Posted 19 months ago.
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very cool stuff.. i wonder if i can use this photo here to do something like that:
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/4.8
Focal Length: 38 mm
no flash.
Posted 19 months ago.
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Thanks hawkjh, I will try that...
Posted 19 months ago.
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I tried it for something different...here r the results..thanx
Posted 18 months ago.
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thank you.
Posted 18 months ago.
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Thank you for the great tutorial!
Posted 18 months ago.
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Thanks for the replies everyone ... it's really nice to see people getting some amazing results !!
John
Posted 18 months ago.
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I sort of came across this technique by trial and error, wish I had done a search first, great tutorial. Thanks
Posted 18 months ago.
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Thanks for the tutorial, I'll try it son
Posted 18 months ago.
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Hi ppl this is my first try but i still have some problemes with the light, can any one help me and give me some tips?! this is some that i cought right
thanks guys for your great tips
Originally posted 18 months ago.
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Erika Almeida edited this topic 18 months ago.
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thanks for posting this! i definately want to give this a try, the results look so amazing!
Posted 18 months ago.
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Any idea how this might work without an external flash?
Posted 18 months ago.
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prolly not too well, flash is most likely the key ingredient, heres my attempt:
Originally posted 18 months ago.
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aitek edited this topic 18 months ago.
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It's vital to have a good lighting. i.e. flash.
Might be alright with a strong light too, but I'm not very sure.
My first day's attempt.
No post-colorisation, just a fine level adjustment.
Posted 18 months ago.
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Good success here, this was fun.
Originally posted 18 months ago.
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K-1000 edited this topic 18 months ago.
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such a great tip but I'm having a hard time getting a good one with my point and shoot. can someone please tell me what i'm doing wrong? thanks.
www.flickr.com/photos/doctian/sets/72157594500432349/
Originally posted 18 months ago.
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doctian edited this topic 18 months ago.
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What you need to make sure that your camera is shooting at a faster speed since it is a point and shoot. Try having it take a picture at around 1/200s and it will look a lot better.
Posted 18 months ago.
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thanks inSepsis. i'll try that.
Posted 18 months ago.
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Vega, what did you use for your black background? I have tried this over and over and do not get a good result. Kudos to all of you that have such great photos!
Posted 18 months ago.
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@carlafinley
Anything black and non-reflective will generally be okay ... if you can shoot in a darkened room, placing some distance between your subject and the background will help as well (the drop off in light from the flash is very quick).
However - it's unlikely you'll get the jet-black backgrounds you see here straight out of the camera. That's where a levels adjustment comes in ... if you look at the histogram you'll see a big spike towards the left end ... moving the black marker into that spike will turn everything beyond that point black and give you the nice background you are seeing here.
John
Originally posted 18 months ago.
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hawkjh edited this topic 18 months ago.
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Thank you for the tutorial I got really excited when some of my pics came out :)
This was a montage:
Posted 17 months ago.
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I'm excited to try this. How do you do the colored smoke?
Posted 17 months ago.
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Thanks for this, I had to have a go at this with my two young lads Harry and Nat who both enjoyed the challenge. It has inspired me to keep the flash OFF the camera - I need to get a remote triggering lead. I achieved this by having a 4 second exposure in the dark then hand-firing the flash.
Posted 17 months ago.
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Excellent - lit this with a desk lamp.
My dining room still smells of sandalwood and patchouly though Yuck!
Posted 17 months ago.
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I find it hard to get *really* high quality images, there is always quite a lot of grain/noise, even with noise reduction on, any tips?
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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aubergene edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Haven't read any 'how'to's' yet, but I did my first super fast expirimentation today. It's fun, but I'm far from satisfied yet. I'll read this tread a bit more toroughly to get better results.
♣ cresk™
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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cresk edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Thanks for the technique... I've tried just 2 shots and this is the second one... Never got the time to try after that...
"Love Is A Smoke Made With The Fume Of Sighs." - William Shakespeare
Do view it larger.
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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Shreelesh Kumar edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Just had a try, that was fun
(Although the position was a bit uncomfortable!)
click:
Posted 16 months ago.
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I tried doing it but I’m having a problem with the light. Did you guys use a regular flashlight or the camera flash? I used a flashlight but i can't get good smoke shots. Any tips on lighting and distance between camera-incense-background would be great.
Thanks guys!!!
Posted 16 months ago.
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kiko1703, I used a camera flash, off camera. I hand fired the flash - mostly as I don't have any means to remote fire it. I held the flash close underneath the smoke, but so it cannot be seen by the camera. As I was hand firing it I used a pitch black room and a fairly long exposure then looked at the histogram on the camera to check the exposure - adjusting the aperture accordingly. The smoke was not far in front of a dark background. Once happy with the result in camera I adjusted the levels inwards (software) - especially the black end until the background vanished. I was very happy with the result.
Posted 16 months ago.
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Yeah same, i don't understand flash"fires upwards (or through) into the smoke " . i got it half worked out....... also i couldn't find a black background =(
Posted 16 months ago.
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Thanks SPACE;
How do flash the light into the smoke without being seen by camera? Do you have your insense far away from the camera?
Posted 16 months ago.
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Shoot the smoke from the side with the flash.
Set your incense stick on the table. Put the camera where you want it and then stick the flash to one side of another. You'll need to e able to trigger your flash off camera.
Posted 16 months ago.
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It's just a case of lighting it properly, no need to do anything to crazy in photoshop to be honest...
Posted 16 months ago.
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how are u people gettin all these crazy colours!!??:O
Posted 16 months ago.
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That's pretty cool. Here's my first attempt:
I got the colour by inverting the photograph and then using the Hue/Saturation tool to colorize the smoke in Photoshop.
Thanks for the tutorial.
_stv™
Posted 15 months ago.
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...I'm glad to find this topic!
I was trying to come up with a similar effect, only with milk...
This is what I came up with.
But reading this technique discussion is very inspirational, especially since I used a good bit of this technique in my milk photo... the dark background the underlighting through the swirls and such.
....now i'm going to have to try the smoke. Cool!
Posted 15 months ago.
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This technique was so difficult to replicate, but i finally got it to rahtid...
Unfortunately i dont have those fancy lights and thing, so i used a bright flashlight and covered it with hand-towel to diffuse the light, but it still wasnt bright enuff... so i had to use the camera flash and covered that with piece of paper, so the light wasnt that intense to show the background
Posted 15 months ago.
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Hi,
here are some shots I've done over this spring.
and if you don't mind me posting this, here is a step by step tutorial I made on how I make my smoke pictures.
www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=59
Posted 15 months ago.
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amzing idea i will try it and i hope i will make something
come near this beauty ...
Posted 15 months ago.
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Instead of PSing I tried applying colored lights:
-- from jahdakine - (?)
Posted 14 months ago.
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This was just my first attempt. I played with the same shot a bit, just to get a feel for it. I will DEFINITELY be playing with it some more!! I had fun!
inverted
played with the color levels a bit
Posted 14 months ago.
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Those are great Laura! The shape reminds me of a calla lily. This is a fun technique also using water ... www.flickr.com/groups/technique/discuss/72157600025287113/
Originally posted 14 months ago.
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Lindenhouse edited this topic 14 months ago.
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i got a new camera yesterday (fujifilm finepix s5700) and i decided to try out taking pictures of smoke for my first adventure with it. my best picture is below. i need to find better lighting and a better background to use, but i'm pretty pleased with it for my first attempt.
Posted 11 months ago.
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farm2.static.flickr.com/1398/944043425_b2b5b5f0e3.jpg?v=0
Posted 11 months ago.
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nomkcalb: That's a fantastic tutorial! Thank you!
Posted 11 months ago.
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Thank you all for the technique hints. Here are some of my results:
 
 
Posted 11 months ago.
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Thanks for the lesson! Here's my fav result:
Posted 11 months ago.
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This is awesome...
Posted 11 months ago.
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I've tried these several times and i cnat get the lighting right. I don't have an off camera flash or anything like that. The first time I used a flood light pointed at the smoke and had some tracing paper over it to diffuse the light a bit. then the second time i tried a flashlight pointing right at the smoke.
Both gave too much extra light onto the black background. I also tried changing hte ISO but that didn't help much (i usually have it set at 200).
Any suggestions please! Mainly with just flood lights/flashlights/desk lamps cause atm i cnat afford to buy something. maybe in a month or so tho.
thanks
Posted 11 months ago.
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I did some smoke a while back...but the other day I tried with water and food dye :)
Posted 10 months ago.
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anyone have any advice for me? (question is 3 posts up)
Posted 10 months ago.
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Here is my first attempt...
Originally posted 10 months ago.
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starfrog007 edited this topic 10 months ago.
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Kendra_J_K asked:
I've tried these several times and i can't get the lighting right. I don't have an off camera flash or anything like that. The first time I used a flood light pointed at the smoke and had some tracing paper over it to diffuse the light a bit. Then the second time I tried a flashlight pointing right at the smoke.
Both gave too much extra light onto the black background. I also tried changing the ISO but that didn't help much (i usually have it set at 200).
So, as I understand the problem, you're getting too much light from your light source on your background?
Four things come to mind (can all be used in any combination as needed):
1) Limit the light at the source. First make sure the light illuminating the smoke is the only light available; turn off the other lights in the room. Second, mask the light source so the light only goes where you want it. For example, take some black paper and wrap it around the flashlight/floodlight so you have a much narrower beam of light. Or take a piece of flat cardboard and tape it to the side closest to the background; this will put the background in the shadow cast by the cardboard.
2) Move the light closer to the smoke so its dispersion pattern ends up being out of frame on the other side.
3) Move the background further away from the smoke. Force the light to have to go farther (out of frame) before it hits the background.
4) Handle it in post processing. Pull up the histogram adjustment tool and push the black side closer towards the middle so the dark greys, which end up almost black in the background, are made really black.
Hope this helps.
Originally posted 10 months ago.
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hpebley3 edited this topic 10 months ago.
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hpebley3-
thanks for the tips :) i think ill try putting some black cardboard around the flashlight/trying to block it better that way.
maybe ill get the chance to try some out tomorrow and see how it goes
thanks again :)
Posted 10 months ago.
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Here's a slightly different take on this topic (for cross-eyed viewing):
A set of them.
Posted 10 months ago.
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my first try on smoke
Originally posted 10 months ago.
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ayashok edited this topic 10 months ago.
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here's mine :
1-
2-
[ click for a better view ]
Posted 10 months ago.
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Thanks so much for this tutorial, I found it took me a fair while to be able to get any good pictures, but I ended up with a pretty spooky one which turned into a nice bit of illustration work. Oddly enough, only her hair has been added and her face defined!
Posted 9 months ago.
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I set up a black backdrop, a stool with the incense on it about 4 feet in front of the backdrop and the camera about the same distance from the stool. For the light I used one of my strobes on a floor stand. This was my first attempt and I was pleased.
  
Posted 9 months ago.
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Wow - this is very COOL
I will have to try this
Posted 9 months ago.
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Check it out .. taken with a Canon PS a710is and a 30 year old flash (my mothers old flash) fired by hand
Posted 9 months ago.
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Well these are a few of my smoke photographs shot with the nikon D70
Posted 9 months ago.
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Check this out:
Posted 9 months ago.
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![Smoke [4] (by -Nicole-)](http://static.flickr.com/2235/1756387401_215185b9fa_m.jpg "Smoke [4] (by -Nicole-)")
The instructions were really helpful for getting the settings right :-)
Posted 8 months ago.
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some of my first.
Posted 8 months ago.
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how to shoot with white background like the others?
Originally posted 8 months ago.
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toti :-) edited this topic 8 months ago.
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I like to keep the original colours (even de-saturated a bit here):
Posted 8 months ago.
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mine ;-)
Posted 8 months ago.
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Posted 6 months ago.
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I won second place in the NYLO hotel's contest for artwork. I submitted my smoke pictures for their "nightlife" category. This is hanging in all their suites!
Posted 6 months ago.
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cool! congrats, snbagley!
Posted 6 months ago.
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Congrats on the second place.
You can also get some cool coloring effects without the use of PS if you put colored gels on your flashes. In the photo above I used a C.T.O. (color temperature orange) on one flash to the right and no gel on a flash to the left. I put a grid spot on the flash to the left to make it a narrow beam and shot it through the middle of the smoke. Notice that it appears bluish. I had the camera set to WB daylight which makes the orange look really orange and the flash appear slightly blue. No photoshop colors added.
Posted 6 months ago.
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My take
Posted 6 months ago.
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Heres on I have done not bad for a first try I think
 ,/a>
Posted 6 months ago.
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Posted 6 months ago.
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totally inspired thank you everyone!!!! im off to play hahaha!
Posted 3 months ago.
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Thanks for the tutorial - here's the one photo I got out of about 50 shots!
Posted 3 months ago.
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after reading this, I had to have a go too, my nightmare was a whole bunch of small white spots on the image - in the dark of my cellar I couldn't see they were tiny pieces of ash being wafted up in to view ... my advice is - as far as possible dust free, and DON'T MOVE !!
Posted 3 months ago.
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2 takes
Originally posted 3 months ago.
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armangi edited this topic 3 months ago.
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i like to mirror image mine the ad some color
Posted 3 months ago.
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this is a wonderful group, today only i joined here..... let me post some old stuff, which was my first and last experiments with smoke
the same one thru ps
Posted 2 months ago.
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Here are some I tried handheld in the late afternoon sunlight ...
Got a few more ,,,
Originally posted 2 months ago.
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Subharnab edited this topic 6 weeks ago.
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Here is one, no post processing...
Equipment,
20D, exposure 1second
Flash- off the camera -manually fired, Red Gel
At night
And incense stick ofcourse
I took about 100shots and I got about 20 shots which or not that bad.. here is one. In future I need to try to eliminate the color from the background... i.e. only the colored smoke without post processing
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