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If that's your first attempt that's darn good!

Now explain to everyone how you did it. :)

--

Jim
 
Hi, i read the same threads last night and it inspired me aswell.

i really like your picture, i'm not sure if i'm doing something wrong or not, but i can't seem to get a good black or "all" white background at the moment, it could be that i'm to close to the subject and background

hera's a couple attempts of mine anyway





 
ChefZiggy said:
Inspired by recent threads on shooting smoke I gave it a try last
night.
Click to expand...
Very nice.
The smoke shape reminds me this one of mine (which is not smoke):



And also:



 
(nt)
 
Very nice, Chef. It's always exciting to see the images that you can capture with as much "control" as you can.

There is excitement and wonder at the randomness of the smoke curls. Looking at the LCD after a capture of a curl of smoke is something like opening the biggest present on Christmas day...you just never know what you're going to get.
 
Thanks for the compliment!

The color was done in photoshop. Here's roughly what I did as I tweaked it a couple of times before I was happy with it.

The original is grey smoke in front of a dark, but not completely black background. Couldn't prevent all spill and even at 1/500s sync speed, at this short distance the BG still had some detail. No worries.

A levels adjustment layer let me compress things into a nice tonal range. Black blacks and white whites. (But watch blowout!)

A Hue/Sat adjustment layer was used to color the smoke. Viola!
Miwa said:
That's one of the best smoke pictures I've seen. Did you enhance
the colour?
Click to expand...
--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy

 
Like I said, I was inspired by what I read in this forum. (I think I said Lighting forum, but it was here.)

Ok. Black foamcore background, ashtray and one of my wife's cigarettes sitting on a stool about 18 inches in front of the foamcore.

I had an SB-600 mounted on a tripod to the left and slightly behind the ashtry shooting a strong sidelight. Undiffused, by the way. Triggered wirelessly via iTTL in commander mode, full strength. (I think I need to work on this so I can shoot faster. Full power gives me two shots before the recycle starts to affect me.)

Manual focus, sometimes on the cigarette, sometimes trying to focus on the smoke. Not sure which this one was. Handheld, of course.

Camera settings: Nikkor 28-105D lens, 1/500s shutter @ f11, ISO200

I probably took over 100 shots and had 20 or so I liked. I've only started PP'ing them.
Jimsokay said:
If that's your first attempt that's darn good!

Now explain to everyone how you did it. :)
Click to expand...
--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy

 
Are you using a levels adjustment as the first step to compress the tonal range? I think that's the key to getting a good black to start with. The good white is just an inversion of the good black. It also cuts out some of the more ethereal smoke and lets the stronger parts show up better.

I was about 2ft from the ashtray, 3.5ft or so from the BG. I was using macro mode on a few shots I was so close. Might be better to back off and zoom in a bit. I was shooting at 50mm for the shot I posted.
hokumra said:
Hi, i read the same threads last night and it inspired me aswell.

i really like your picture, i'm not sure if i'm doing something
wrong or not, but i can't seem to get a good black or "all" white
background at the moment, it could be that i'm to close to the
subject and background
Click to expand...
--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy

 
...disclaimer, "That no leprechauns were exposed to secondhand smoke in the production of this picture." lol. Interesting picture, but I'm afraid it's not too exciting. Well what do you expect, not exactly a babe in a bikini or dramatic landscape with a babe in a bikini - lol.
--
Stan ;o()
I'll misquote Donald Rumsfeld when I say,
'You go take pictures with the glass you've got.'
 
I take it where I can find it.

Once I got my light placed right it got easier. I think I need to open the aperture just a tad so I can shoot at half power on the flash. That way I could get a burst in.

The trouble with that is that the smoke column is 3-dimensional and some parts will be outside the DOF.

Also, I had a constant air pressure from the right for some reason. The smoke always went to the left.
David H Lewis said:
Very nice. I was equally inspired, but haven't had a chance to give
it a try yet.
Click to expand...
--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy

 
Not sure what you mean with that. I felt like there was almost no control as the smoke kept moveing outside my DOF.
MagicNikon said:
Very nice, Chef. It's always exciting to see the images that you
can capture with as much "control" as you can.

There is excitement and wonder at the randomness of the smoke
curls. Looking at the LCD after a capture of a curl of smoke is
something like opening the biggest present on Christmas day...you
just never know what you're going to get.
Click to expand...
^^^AMEN! That way for every shot I take!^^^
--
Chefziggy
http://www.pbase.com/chefziggy

 
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