HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH SMOKE TRAILS

How would you like to create a one-off original photograph similar to the ones on display above and below and hang it on your own wall?

OK Here’s how.

How to get the original image.

You need to set-up a small table in front of your camera and have as your background something dark or black to show the smoke trail rising. Black cloth – I use a velvet material – set back about a foot from the smoke in front is best as then no light will land on it and spoil the shot and being back far enough will make it blurred or out of focus to the smoke trail which is the main point of focus. Pre-focus in a good light so that everything will appear nice and sharp in your picture. I used joss sticks to provide the smoke and experimented with various camera settings sometimes a long exposure sometimes short.

It also pays to create a draught near to your smoke, as this will provide you with interesting images as well. Use a small hand held fan or newspaper to create small whirls and interesting smoke affects.

Tips

Use a tripod to fix the camera and get nice sharp shots – if you don’t have a tripod set the camera up on a solid surface pointing at smoke and use remote timer shutter release to avoid movement and blur.

Experiment with different air currents from different directions - no picture is ever the same.

Use remote release or wireless release to avoid accidentally nudging the camera when you press the shutter.

Set the shutter to a small aperture so that it gives you longer exposures and sharp pictures.

Experiment with ‘B’ setting on your camera if one is fitted to alter length of time shutter is open to get various results.

Post Production editing

You need to do some adjustments of your image using your favourite graphics software in my case that would be Photoshop CS2.

Firstly, open image in Photoshop and select View>snap from the menu options and then turn on view>rulers. Click to hold the cursor on the top rule bar and drag it down to roughly half way.

Then select Layer>duplicate layer then flip it horizontally by choosing Edit then transform and flip vertically. This will create an image with 2 layers the top layer being in the opposite direction.

Select rectangular Marquee tool and starting from the bottom of the image drag upwards to the middle of your image again – hit delete to reveal the image you have underneath.

Hit Ctrl-H to hide the guides and see the whole image. Select layers >flatten image to enable you to colorize what you have left. Select Gradient Tool from tools palette and then select radial Gradient pattern and choose a foreground to transparency fill. Using overlay blending mode and set your opacity to about 35-45%. 

Your finished images should look like some of the pictures I have shown at the side and you will find that every image is unique and worthy of mounting on your favourite wall.