Well now, this is my first real attempt at capturing smoke streams and have to say…I had a total blast tonight! First off, I would like to thank >>Sandra << for posting a link on her Facebook page to this >>tutorial<< which I somewhat followed.
How I did it. First off, figured out a good spot for the incense. I then placed my Canon Speedlite 430EX II (set to manual, 1/2 power using a snoot) to camera right, behind the incense and angled at about 30 degrees towards the smoke. I did use a silver reflector (aligned with the Speedlite) to the left of the incense. I decided to use my lens hood since the flash was somewhat pointing in the general direction of the camera! I originally only had one stick burning but, it just didn’t produce enough smoke so I ended up having two burning.
Now, you might be wondering about the colour…no, I didn’t actually add any colour in Photoshop! What I did was added a purple gel to the Speedlite, but only covered half the output (pretty sneaky eh)! Enjoy…
…d
David Williams Photography 
Gorgeous. Love the swirls and the colour.
Amazing colors! Looks surreal!
Thank you Chris, I am really pleased how this image turned out!
Awesome!!! Awesome!!! I really have to try this someday! Did I mention that this was awesome? 🙂
Thank you so so much for the awesome comment! You should try it one day when it’s cold and rainy in your part of the world, I know I am looking forward to seeing what you can come up with (ooooerrrr, peer pressure)! 😛
Fantastic job David. I had a blast the first time I tried these. Nice trick with the gelled speedlight.
Thank you Wes, I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do with smoke…as you said, it is a blast!!
Now that is awesome, something I have never tried, but don’t know if I should. Lovely color and composition all around.
Thank you Martina and yes, I think you should try, I would love to see what you come up with!
Great shot David, love the colors. I’ve got smoke shots on my to do list, just haven’t had a time to get to them (or been able to find incense!). Sorry for not commenting for so long, been absolutely crazy busy lately.
No worries about the commenting, I have a feeling it’s going around the blog land to tell you the truth! On word of advise if you use incense, very well ventilated area! I honestly didn’t think I would have it lit for a long time but, ahhh, yea…ventilation! Mike mentioned dry ice on another post…I think I am going to look into that! 🙂
Love love love it! I want to try it next! If my bedroom was purple and blue I would want it!
Awww, thanx Morgan!!
This is gorgeous David. Love the colors. Can’t believe this is your first time. 🙂
Crazy isn’t it? I am looking forward to playing more with smoke streams!
Colors have turned out real nice in this shot. I think your shot looks great with the WP’s duotone theme.
I have been, for the most part, impressed with this theme. Thank you for the comment Sasi.
Amazing image David. The colors, shapes and flow are stunning.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting Terri. I had a great time with this image.
This is great, I can see different things in it too – a fish in the top right corner, particularly.
🙂
I think more of a whale jumping out of the ocean when I look in the top right area! It’s great all the different things we see isn’t it?
Holy smokes! 😉 That’s very cool!
Hahaha, that was funny! Thanx for stopping by and commenting.
This is an absolutely gorgeous photo. It looks like two fish twirling in a stream. Amazing colour and clarity. Love it.
I see the fish every time I look at it. Cait says there’s a tulip on the left side of the image! 🙂
Very, very cool. The colours are wonderful. I’ve not tried this myself, one day I will have too.
Hi JP, I think you should try it someday! Thank you for your comment.
Well, you’re very welcome. I believe in sharing information. Great job, I must say that the colors are stunning!
Thanx again Sandra! I had a good time with my mini smoke serious. 🙂
Hey David. Awesome! I like this a lot and really need to try it. Thanks for posting the original link as well, I’m going to give it a go once I get my off camera flash!
Thank you Nigel and you are welcome for the original post. I am looking forward to your images when you get the off camera flash. 🙂
I agree – the Lightbox version looks better. Most of my shots look better there as well – maybe I should start adding the Lightbox link to my posts.
I am certain WP compresses the image whereas Flickr doesn’t…that’s about the only thing I can think of! 🙂
That is really cool. If I didn’t know it was smoke I might think it was jellyfish in the deep ocean.
I was thinking a jellyfish or a nebula on this one Mike! If you haven’t already, click the Lightbox link, I think it looks so much better!!