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First Smoke Shots

Posted March 1st, 2007 @ 11:29pm by Erik J. Barzeski

Thanks to the folks who responded to my previous question about incense I was able to make some interesting photographs tonight. Unfortunately, at f/5.6, my depth of field was only about 0.18 feet, or just over two inches. So, many of my photographs are a bit… out of focus. I set my shutter speed to 1/250 to try to stop motion (plus, that's as fast as my strobes will sync), and did a reasonable job at that.

All told, it was a good learning experience. Of course, I must still thank this article for providing the clues.

Next time, I'll have to try f/11 or f/16. That's two or three stops less light, but rather than putting the honeycomb grids (10° and 20°) on, I'll rig up an aluminum foil snoot and/or just put up a gobo. The grids probably take up about three stops of light.

Pictures come after the jump. Move your mouse over the image for the inverse image.Smoke Purple RedSmoke Purple OrangeSmoke Green Blue

Smoke Purple Red

Smoke Purple Orange

Smoke Green Blue

7 Comments »

7 Responses to "First Smoke Shots"

  1. | Reply ron
    Posted 02 Mar 2007 at 12:15am #

    those turned out really nice. i think the most interesting part of the smoke is down near the source and not as much of a wide angle view... the part where the smoke starts to dissapate out more and is cloudier is less interesting to me.

  2. | Reply Photocritic.org
    Posted 02 Mar 2007 at 2:09am #

    Personally, I think I prefer the calmer-moving smoke as well.

    Glad you liked my article 🙂

    - Haje

  3. | Reply Erik J. Barzeski
    Posted 02 Mar 2007 at 7:59am #

    [quote comment="39752"]Personally, I think I prefer the calmer-moving smoke as well.[/quote]

    I do as well. Though I'd prefer too if it was in focus. 🙂

  4. | Reply Sharlene
    Posted 02 Mar 2007 at 12:37pm #

    Excellent job! I started messing with smoke and an egg the other day lol you should check them out 🙂 I've found that taking them in the sunlight really helps sharpen the focus, hell
    I was using auto settings when i took them!

  5. | Reply More Smoke | NSLog();
    Posted 04 Mar 2007 at 5:04pm #

    [...] first smoke shots were only "okay," so today I set out to improve upon [...]

  6. | Reply Lilith
    Posted 04 Mar 2007 at 8:19pm #

    Erik,

    Those are great!

    Have you considered shooting some smoke from a hookah?

    The Hookah Café at 129 W. 14th St

  7. | Reply Jenson
    Posted 08 Mar 2007 at 8:43am #

    Very cool!