Please suggest...

[nepzie]

I shot this picture with a black cloth on the background.But then I got a lot of details of the cloth itself due to the flash (I've got no external flash).So to remove the details I have to process it extremely in photoshop. The result is this shot with some sort of textures at some parts of the picture (especially around top left). Is there any other way I could lighten the smoke and darken the background without getting the textures from the background? Thank you.

[divejunky]

Hi Nepzie.
You are on the right track, but to get the pic you're after you have to light the smoke from behind, that is have a light source between the smoke and your background,( an external flash is best) have the light behind the smoke about 45 degrees to camera left, facing towards camera right.

Is this the sort of effect you were after.

[nepzie]

[QUOTE=divejunky;547901]Hi Nepzie.
You are on the right track, but to get the pic you're after you have to light the smoke from behind, that is have a light source between the smoke and your background,( an external flash is best) have the light behind the smoke about 45 degrees to camera left, facing towards camera right.

Is this the sort of effect you were after.

Yes, your shot is razor sharp......Guess I need to start saving for an external flash now ...