First try with Smoke!

I've been wanting to try this for awhile now so did a little on-line research and watched an instructional YouTube video by Terry Watson. I tried inverting this to get the white bg and magenta smoke but it looked pretty washed out so I prefer this black and green version. Equipment: Canon 7D with 17-55mm, 1/125s, f/7.1 (I'm going to stop down more next time), Canon 580 EX II on Yongnuo YN622C (-3), black bg via mat board, PP in CS6 (levels, brightness/contrast, H/S, vibrance)
Any comments or suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/80104515@N05/8​083030597/

It does not look sharp? Maybe increase the Fstop.

photobug7d wrote in post #15117176
It does not look sharp? Maybe increase the Fstop.

Yes, working on that now. Thanks!

Michele

Here's another attempt, increased stop to f/16.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/80104515@N05/8​083423594/

Yes way better. I generally start mine around F11 and work up from there.

Thanks again, photobug7D! I found that the air in my basement is eerily still so tried various methods of disturbing it.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/80104515@N05/8​083785071/

Love that second one!

You can shoot smoke anywhere from f/2.8 to f/8 and get stunning shots, there's no need to go narrower than f/8. Read through the smoke photography thread linked in my sig, there's a ton of very useful info there.