A Quick Recipe for Smoke Photography
27. Jan, 2010 
4 Comments
Amar Ramesh.
Smoke photography has gained lot of momentum in the recent years. There are some photographers out there who come up with amazing smoke photographs. The setup for smoke photography is relatively simple. Here’s a quick recipe for successful smoke photographs.
Items Needed:
- A power controllable flash/strobe light
- A DSLR
- A good lens (preferably macro lens)
- An incense sticks
- Tripod optional
- Black background
- Two small black sheet
- Wireless flash trigger or wired trigger
Steps Involved:
- Attach the black back drop to the wall.
- Place the incense stick a foot away from the back drop.
- Place a table lamp on the right to help with focusing.
- Place the flash/strobe on the left side of the incense stick, half a foot away from smoke.
- Place the black sheet on either side of the strobe to avoid unwanted spill and flare.
- Start with 1/16th of the power and go up or down depending on your strobe.
- Now light the incense stick, switch on the table lamp.
- Focus on the edge of the incense stick where the smoke arises. Don’t open your aperture wider than f8.0
- Keep the shutter speed below your sync speed. 1/200 is preferable.
- Click away and get some great smoke pictures.
- Slightly blow the smoke to get some dramatic shapes of smoke.
- Try placing 2 or 3 incense sticks to form a pattern.
Easy post processing techniques:
- Open the picture in Photoshop.
- Select the entire image by clicking Ctrl A or Cmd A
- Go to Image>Adjustments>Inverse. This will make the background white.
- Use Hue and Saturation to adjust the color of the smoke.
- Also try the colorize option under Hue & Saturation adjustment to get some dramatic colors of the smoke on a white background.
Follow these steps and end up with some artistic pictures. Last but not least always remember to practice, practice and practice. That’s the only way to be perfect.
Great tips!
Love the last picture!
[Reply]
Thanks a lot!
I always loved smoke photos, now I know how to start!
[Reply]
Thanks Amar! I’m going to try this, although I don’t have a strobe light, but I’ll figure something out. I like your simple explanations and plan.
Also… that pink smoke is pure silk – I love it !!
[Reply]