Simple Smoke Photography Tutorial (No extra gear)

[PowerPix]

Items Needed:
Incense stick
Match/lighter
Tripod (optional)
A dark room (or it helps to have a dark background)

Camera settings for both shots:
Camera Canon EOS 50D
Manual
Auto Focus
Shutter 1/250
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 200
On-camera flash

Due to the popularity of my Water Droplet tutorial, I thought I might show you how I shoot smoke. Again, this is a tutorial using a DSLR with no additional flash.

Step 1. Have a dark room, or dark background set up. The reason for this is you want the photo to come blacked out with just the smoke highlighted. If you are shooting against a background, be sure to have the camera at least 4ft away so that the flash does not capture the background.

Step 2. Hold the incense stick in front of the camera about 8-10 inches and focus on the tip. It helps if you use a tripod for the camera. Remember the approximate distance the stick is from the lens so you can come back to it.

Step 3. Light your incense stick and then blow it out. It actually helps to let it burn for about 15 seconds to produce the best smoke. Hold the stick at about the distance you originally focused on.

Step 4. Turn the lights off or shoot against your dark backround. Wave the stick around gently to generate different shapes. Blowing softly creates some neat effects. Now shoot!

Step 5 (Optional). Processing! This is completely up to you. For the first photo I only adjusted curves and added gradient. The second photo I adjusted curves, inverted, and then I added a gradient. Both were processed using Gimp.

Note: If you wanted to get a white background instead of black, you would need to play with "levels" and "curves" during processing. You can also use a white background to further assist. It is a bit more advanced to get a white background looking good. So for the purposes of this simple tutorial, I taught you the easier black background way!

Other tutorials that may be of interest which require no extra gear | Ultra Easy Freelensing | Action |

[a73210]

I am dying to to try it today!!

[leena]

ah man i didn't stay 4ft away from the wall, no wonder they didn't come out good.
i'll re-shoot it tomorrow

[leena]

not as clear as yours but

[drewdunnrespect]

ausome shot will so have to try this when i have the time

[derekspacelewis]

Beautiful smoke shots. And finally a tutorial for someone like me that has no external flashes or fancy gear lol. I'll have to give it a try soon. Thanks!

[David.]

Another brilliant post, TFS its great for beginners like myself to know the simple ways of how to create pictures like this.

Cheers

[PowerPix]

not as clear as yours but

Nice! Keep up the great work, these are fantastic!

Beautiful smoke shots. And finally a tutorial for someone like me that has no external flashes or fancy gear lol. I'll have to give it a try soon. Thanks!

You are very welcome. I don't have extra gear, so I like to see what I can come up with in terms of "cliche" photos that people normally take with much more gear.

It's competitive really, just to see if what I get looks close or better!

Another brilliant post, TFS its great for beginners like myself to know the simple ways of how to create pictures like this.

Cheers

You're welcome David. Glad you like the tutorial. Be sure to post some photos when you give it a try!

[Sooner_Girl27]

Thanks for the tut! I think I am going to try this tonight too....I suppose I need a smoke shot within my gallery too LOL

[SpAcE126]

Nice, I'll try this once I get my hands on some incense sticks. Thanks for the tutorial!