Moods of Smoke.

[yjoshi]

This is my first attempt at taking photos of smoke. I will wait for your brickbats / roses!!


Moods of Smoke on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

All of these are taken at f/4.0, manual focus, 1/30 or 1/60 sec exposure and ISO 1600. EV boosted up to +1

[Nicole]

They don't seem very sharp to me. So that's probably either because of either your shutter speed (not sure if you used flash) or your focus.

While it's hard to see how noisy the photos are given the size on your Flickr page, I'm going to go ahead and say from experience that the nature of smoke and the way it is to begin with means that even at ISO 200 you're likely going to see noise, so my thought is that at 1600 it's going to be really noisy.

And lastly I'm going to go ahead and say that I would simplify the presentation more. One of the reason that I find smoke shots interesting is because of their simplicity and minimalism contrasted with the intricate details of the smoke swirls. By putting so many into a single presentation I find that I don't really know where I want to look.

My recommendations for future shots? More light. Lots more light. The extra light will get the shutter speed up and the ISO down. A few work lights from the hardware store are a cheap option and they're something I've used. Keep trying. My first attempt was just terrible compared to some of the more recent shots that I've taken.

[yjoshi]

Hi Nicole.. thanks a lot for your GREAT tips. Yes i quickly realized that 1600 iso was way too much.. but did not want to throw away what i have learnt.. now my learning is firm. I will take few more shots (possibly at 100 ISO) in next few days and re-post.

I agree with the presentation approach too... it was a tame effort to hide the issues with individual images and make it look batter than they really are! Last thing that my friend suggested that even though i TRIED.. the manual focus was still not set the best way.. which i am hoping to correct next time.

Can you please share your smoke photos with me?