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Smoke Experiments – how to photograph smoke


Two weeks ago I read a very interesting article/tutorial on photographing smoke on the photocritic.org blog with some excellent pictures by Graham Jefferey. Amazed by the smoke pictures. I decided to give it a try and test my new off-camera flash cord at the same time.


The setup:

A black sweater pulled over a chair served as my background, and the little box the flash cord came in served as my snoot, to avoid light spilling on my background and making it… not black.

When you set up, make sure you don’t have anything nearby that will reflect light from your flash on the background.
With the lights on, and the camera on the tripod, I focused on an object I held at the spot where I would be having the smoke, and then flipped my lens to manual focus. With a small aperture, this step may be a bit less important, but I just wanted to play safe. I tested with larger apertures as well.

I turned the main lights off to reduce the chance of light reflecting on my background (as this wasn’t a very professional set-up) and just had some small light source in the room so I wouldn’t bump into things.
The shooting:

A smoking incense stick in one hand, a flash and remote shutter release in the other, at about 90 degrees, the fun could start. I moved the incense stick in varying ways to get different smoke patterns. Now and then I checked the picture on my camera to make sure of what’s in the frame, so I wouldn’t have the stick in all my images, or miss out on the smoke. Try different exposure settings, different flash angles and keep shooting until you’re tired, your stick stops smoking, or your flash runs out of batteries.
And then you’ll have to clean up the ashes that fell on the floor in the process…

The editing:

Getting back at the computer I was amazed. Smoke patterns can be so beautiful and diverse! I had to throw some pictures out immediately because out of focus, totally black or not of interest. Remember at this point that you can crop, rotate and play with levels to increase the wow-factor of some images. On most images I just did that, for some others I cloned some of the excess smoke away. On one of the pictures, I saw what looked like a female figure, so I took away some excess smoke to bring it out better. A couple of days later I renewed the experience, and had another image with a more alien-like figure. What’s next?

As suggested in the photocritic.org article I changed the hue on some pictures as well, and inverted some others. I felt that for my pictures the black background works better so I didn’t invert many. I will surely repeat this experiment from time to time, and I suggest you give it a try as well. Or just enjoy the beautiful smoke images that are out there on the web.
Several people have suggested that I blend in other images with these smoke pictures, and that will definitely be a project to work on.

Thanks to Graham and photocritic.org for the article and information!

from Lumendipity Photography Blog – www.lumendipity.com/blog
Smoke Photography 8:13 pm , February 6, 2007 10

10 thoughts on “Smoke Experiments – how to photograph smoke”

  2. I was inpressed by the photos you posted on the Zo and decided to come check out the rest of your stuff. I have to say all the smoke photography you’ve shown is awesome. I particularly like this one. It does look like a female figure to me. It seems almost spiritual. Thanks for sharing. Very awesome

  3. I’ve seen your work at potography blog and I was amazed. Also, I was asking myself what helped you to make such a lovely smoke. Now that I read your instruction I’m more then impatient to try it myself.Thank you a lot!

  4. I wantede to say that your smoke works are very inspiring. Keep pressing the media. The Smoke is very spiritual in in both realms. It has the feel of Good and Evil waring for space. Your Awesome:)

  5. I just want to say that the smoke pics are the most beautiful and creative pictures i have seen for a while – perhaps i have ever seen!! well done!! i love them!!!

    Lucy, London, UK

  7. I saw your work in Birmingham’s metro and i was impressed. Smoke photography is beautiful and very creative !
    Now almost a year later, i decided that i will try something similar for my A level Photography.
    Thanx for the sharing :))