First try at smoke photos

So I finally got my 580ex ii and I decided to take a shot at smoke again. First time I did it, it wasn't that great but I read a guide some where on this site. I wish I could credit him but I forget where it was.

Pretty much this was done with 3 layers of black fabric pinned up to a wall that draped down to my coffee table. The camera had a really difficult time auto focusing so I used some scissors and had it focus to where my smoke would be coming up from. I made a, funnel(?) with some cardboard and saran wrap (I was all out of tape) and placed it over my flash so it wouldn't flood the room. I used a pizza box as a bounce board (this is REAAALLY DIY).

ISO 800
50mm
f/3.5
1/60 shutter
Flash set to manual 1/32

Held the flash to the right of the smoke, aimed it at the smoke and pizza box and this is what I got.

Very nice! Just out of curiosity, why shoot at ISO 800?

bsaber wrote in post #11615678
Very nice! Just out of curiosity, why shoot at ISO 800?

Thanks!

Honestly? I was trying to get my scissors in focus but the AF was being stupid cause I couldn't get any light to meter it. I cranked up my ISO and forgot to put it back down.

Intolight23 wrote in post #11615696
Thanks!

Honestly? I was trying to get my scissors in focus but the AF was being stupid cause I couldn't get any light to meter it. I cranked up my ISO and forgot to put it back down.

Ah, made me wonder

Intolight23 wrote in post #11615696
Thanks!

Honestly? I was trying to get my scissors in focus but the AF was being stupid cause I couldn't get any light to meter it. I cranked up my ISO and forgot to put it back down.

Heh, I've done that (d'oh!). Nice shots – I love how it looks in negative. What did you use for the source of the smoke? Cigarette? Blown out candle? Incense?

emmalish wrote in post #11615818
Heh, I've done that (d'oh!). Nice shots – I love how it looks in negative. What did you use for the source of the smoke? Cigarette? Blown out candle? Incense?

Thanks. I used a cigarette. I really wanted to try incense because they give a narrower smoke and you can manipulate it a bit more. It also smells a lot nicer.

Beautiful. In the upper picture I see a ghost figure with eyes & two hands. Lower figure is wearing ladies high heel shoe. Lot of imagination is possible here. Lower picture is compositionally cut off abruptly on top.

What camera & lens is used. I assume off camera flash was fired using PC wire.

I really like the first one, very nice. The second just seems a little too jumbled and may benefit from some overpainting to calm it down.

The first thing I noticed when I was editing these photos was that I felt like I was taking those ink blot tests. I think that's what originally attracted me to these types of photos, it's like looking at clouds and finding outlines of random things.

Camera I used was Rebel T2i
50mm f/1.4 USM
Pixel Flash Sync Cord for 580EX ii

@ crokney - I'll try and cut off the top of the 2nd one and see if it looks cleaner.

I just cropped the top part and fixed it up a bit and it makes a huge difference! It actually looks like a woman at the bottom and a person with wings yelling at the top.

Thanks for the advice!

Great. Lady with wings.

I just sold my 50f1.4 to fund 24-70. Looking at these pics, I hope I made a good decision.

If you boost your shutter speed you can point a low power continuous light at the smoke so you can focus easier.

ssmanak wrote in post #11622962
Great. Lady with wings.

I just sold my 50f1.4 to fund 24-70. Looking at these pics, I hope I made a good decision.

It's all preferences I feel. Personally, I like having that 1 lens I can rely on. 50mm seems versatile for most of the things I needed.

imgnxpsr wrote in post #11623358
If you boost your shutter speed you can point a low power continuous light at the smoke so you can focus easier.

I tried using a book light to light the smoke while I tried to focus but I didn't have my shutter speed high. I'll try that next time. Thanks.

Wow these are great!! I found this thread because I'm going to make a second attempt at a match photo tomorrow. My first attempt went well in some respects and not in others. Trying to get good captures of the smoke is something I really want to work on.

So by using the cardboad, you effectively made a snoot? That's funny I just got my lumiquest softbox and thought that making the flash cover more area would be good! It looks like your results speak for themselves.

Maybe I'll put the 580EX II into manual zoom mode and crank it up to 100mm. Do you think that'll work? Do you have any suggestions for me?

thanks for sharing your awesome photos, there are some very mystical qualities about them.

bzollinger wrote in post #11642360
Wow these are great!! I found this thread because I'm going to make a second attempt at a match photo tomorrow. My first attempt went well in some respects and not in others. Trying to get good captures of the smoke is something I really want to work on.

So by using the cardboad, you effectively made a snoot? That's funny I just got my lumiquest softbox and thought that making the flash cover more area would be good! It looks like your results speak for themselves.

Maybe I'll put the 580EX II into manual zoom mode and crank it up to 100mm. Do you think that'll work? Do you have any suggestions for me?

thanks for sharing your awesome photos, there are some very mystical qualities about them.

Thank you.

Yeah, the cardboard was pretty much a DIY snoot. I just bent the cardboard to match the head of my flash and saran wrapped the hell out of it.

As far as using a softbox, I don't think it's necessary. When I took these photos, at most I was covering about 1 foot of smoke, which I think is more than necessary. I don't know about any other types of smoke but I feel there are 3 parts to smoke. 1 is the thin line that forms at the smoke source, then about a foot above is where the smoke starts to get very intricate. Another 1/2 above is where the smoke dissipates in to just puffy smoke.

So using a softbox to cover about 1 foot of smoke probably would hurt more than it helps because then you're flooding light to the background, etc. At first, I used the snoot because I didn't want to flood the room and background with light. When I started snapping photos, I felt the snoot made the smoke a bit more intense. It really brings out the white or black (if you go negative). Also, my flash wasn't in a fixed position on every shot. I had it constantly shifting because I had no extra tripod. Some of the pics I took, the flash was actually on the photo and others were far away.

I didn't try putting the flash to 100mm but it's worth a shot, right? Let me know how that goes.