Photography Lessons: How to Photograph Smoke Quiz

Answer: incense stick

Incense sticks or cones are the most commonly used things for smoke photos. They are easy to use and produce a good amount of steady smoke for a long period of time. You light the incense and then blow out the flame so it smokes.

A blown out candle will only smoke for a short while which will cause you to constantly relight it. Matches would not provide enough smoke and would not last for a long enough time. Smoke bombs would create way too much smoke and tend to not burn for very long. Also, since you are photographing in an indoor, studio setting, they would quickly fill your room with smoke.

Answer: The light would hit the smoke head on.

A built in flash would not work well for this type of photo because it would be pointed directly at the smoke from the front and not light up the smoke correctly. The background would also get too much light. An external flash allows you to aim the light at a better angle.

If all you have is a built-in flash, you may be able to use a piece of white card stock or an index card held in front of the flash to control the direction of the light by bouncing it to the side or up.

Answer: black

A black background will add contrast to the smoke and let its light color pop. A lighter colored background would not make the smoke visible enough.

It you do not have a black wall, you can easily hang a piece of fabric to use as a backdrop.

Answer: a tripod

A tripod is a three-legged camera stand that holds your camera still. There are many reasons why you would want to use a tripod for your smoke photos. It will make it so you don't have to constantly refocus or re-frame the smoke. It also makes it so you don't have to hold your camera. For this photo you may need two tripods, one or your camera and one for your flash. But, it is possible to just hold your flash in the correct place.

A wireless remote might also be handy if you want to avoid any slight movement that comes with manually pressing the shutter button. But, it isn't required.

Answer: a dim, well-ventilated room

Since you are using the flash to light up your smoke. You don't want too much ambient light since it might shine into your photos and cause lighting issues. That's not to say you need to be in a room with all the lights off, though. Just make sure the lights aren't too close to your smoke or background. Depending on the type of light, they might just cause the smoke to have a yellow or orange cast. That can be fixed later in editing or you may like the look. The smoke should appear white-blue.

You also want the room to be well-ventilated or large enough that the smoke does not build up. But, you want to avoid any sort of breeze that will cause the smoke to blow around. Still air will let the smoke rise in a mostly straight column. If the movement of the smoke is uninteresting, though, you can make the smoke move yourself by simply waving a hand.

Answer: on the right or left side of the smoke source (pointing at the smoke)

The smoke should be lit up from the side. The flash should be held about a foot or so from the smoke. Depending on the type of flash you have, you might need a cord to connect it to your camera or you might be able to sync it to the camera so it goes off when you press the shutter. Once the smoke is lit, you might want to test the brightness and different settings of your flash until it lights the smoke appropriately.

Answer: 1/200 - 1/250

If you use a shutter speed that is too slow, the smoke will be blurry and the overall picture will be overexposed, or too bright. If you use one that is too fast, the opposite will happen. Also, if you use a too fast shutter speed with a flash, a black line will appear on the side of your image. Because of this you should not go higher than 1/250.

Answer: as low as possible

ISO is basically the film speed, even on digital cameras. If it is set high, it brightens the picture and adds a grainy quality which is even more obvious in dark pictures. You want to avoid both of these things, so you should set the ISO as low as it will go. On a lot of cameras, that would be about 100.

Answer: True

After your camera has focused, switch to manual focus. This is so you will not have to refocus for each shot. The smoke should stay in the same relative area. However, depending on the angle of the incense stick, the part that is smoking will move down the stick. As this happens, you will have to move your camera and re-frame the shot. When this happens, make sure to refocus your camera.

Answer: desaturate completely

You can have lots of fun editing your smoke photos. You can invert the image and make the smoke different colors or even a rainbow. But, if you aren't very editing savvy or just like the traditional black and white look, you can easily desaturate it. If you desaturate it all the way, there will be no color. If you edit farther, you may want to add some contrast, especially if there are light spots in the background. This will make the colors pop more, too. The smoke may also need to be sharpened a bit as well.

And there you go! You now have a photograph of smoke. Hopefully you enjoyed the process and learned something about this photography technique.