Photographing Smoke

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.photocritic.org/2007/artsmoke-photographing-smoke/

"Before anything, Graham points out that there is no ‘right’ way to photograph smoke. His technique has developed over a long period of time, and Graham admits to learning and discovering new things every time he sets out to take the photos. The two key secrets to smoke photography is inverting the image, and using gray smoke. Say what now? How does that work? Well, Graham explains: “It’s quite a simple technique, really. All you need to concentrate on when you are taking the photos themselves, is getting good images of the smoke. The colours are generated digitally at a later stage.” To get the best possible smoke to work with, Graham uses simple incense sticks known as Joss sticks, which can be purchased from most Chinese supermarkets and in every Chinatown anywhere in the world. Aternatively, any reasonably large incense stick should do the trick. Once you’ve got the smoke, the rest is all down to freezing the motion, and getting the lighting right."



I didn't realize how hard it could be to take good pictures of smoke. This tutorial really provides a lot of guidance to make the process a lot easier.

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.photocritic.org/2007/artsmoke-photographing-smoke/

"Before anything, Graham points out that there is no ‘right’ way to photograph smoke. His technique has developed over a long period of time, and Graham admits to learning and discovering new things every time he sets out to take the photos. The two key secrets to smoke photography is inverting the image, and using gray smoke. Say what now? How does that work? Well, Graham explains: “It’s quite a simple technique, really. All you need to concentrate on when you are taking the photos themselves, is getting good images of the smoke. The colours are generated digitally at a later stage.” To get the best possible smoke to work with, Graham uses simple incense sticks known as Joss sticks, which can be purchased from most Chinese supermarkets and in every Chinatown anywhere in the world. Aternatively, any reasonably large incense stick should do the trick. Once you’ve got the smoke, the rest is all down to freezing the motion, and getting the lighting right."



I didn't realize how hard it could be to take good pictures of smoke. This tutorial really provides a lot of guidance to make the process a lot easier.