Taking crisp pictures in the cold?

[trooper5010]

It's getting below 32 here in Bellingham in the northwest so I thought it would be a good time to start taking cold pictures! I had this great b&w image in my head of a man sitting facing away from the camera, bundled up on a bench breathing out and you can see his breath (and it's at night time)... Does anyone know how I can achieve this?

I'm thinking I need to have a light source to reflect the breath in to the camera, but I don't even know how I can avoid a long exposure and get a crisp image of the person. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks!

[BigFuzzy]

You're likely going to have to really think out this shot.
I think you'll need at least one off camera flash. I was picturing a shot where you're behind the subject(as you noted) and the subject would have a flash in front of him shooting back at you but of course not being seen by the camera. The subject would then be silhouetted and their breath should be well like by the flash.

You have to think about your settings to go along with the flash to ensure you have as much ambient light as you want in the shot.

Using flash is idea, but any strong light source that can be used to light the breath and not the subject should work though I find it difficult to imagine such a scenario.
This sort of thing is what I had in mind (in terms of lighting). Look how the back lit smoke stands out.
Heavy Breath | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
or this..
The Breath of Life | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I did a search on flickr for "strobist breath"..
good luck and post some results!