# Abstract art using smoke



## KmH (Dec 6, 2010)

Incense smoke and strobed light;

1. Hot Smoke






2. The Whirlypool





3. Shrimply Smoke





4. The Rose


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## Frequency (Dec 6, 2010)

Oh, those stole my heart; classic images; loved them for their patterns and colours

Regards


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## Erikah672 (Dec 7, 2010)

Nice Images.... but why in #2 does it look like their is a person holding something in the lower right hand corner?


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## starcluster (Dec 7, 2010)

The last one is the fav for me :3, i agree on the nice patters and the colors..
well done


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## KenC (Dec 7, 2010)

Very complex and interesting patterns - some of these could be cropped in different places to produce several different images where a portion of the smoke trail fills the frame.


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## KmH (Dec 7, 2010)

Erikah672 said:


> Nice Images.... but why in #2 does it look like their is a person holding something in the lower right hand corner?


Thanks. 

In #2, the lower right hand corner is technically black (R-0, G-0, B-0) so I guess you're seeing things that aren't there.


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

#2 is cool (not that the others aren't - that's just my favorite, lol).

I need to do some more of these...

I've always done the coloring in PP before, but I think I'm going to do it by gelling the flash next time.


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## KmH (Dec 7, 2010)

KenC said:


> Very complex and interesting patterns - some of these could be cropped in different places to produce several different images where a portion of the smoke trail fills the frame.


Yep. These 3 are crops as it is. (2 are the same image, just edited differently)

So far, there is no antispating what the smoke is going to do, because the set is dark.


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 7, 2010)

Very cool Keith! Could you give noobs like me an idea on how to do that? Lens & light setup and general technique? I'd love to give that a try!! Sounds like fun!
Awesome shots, simple but so nice!


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## Viper 23 (Dec 7, 2010)

awosome shots


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

Marc-Etienne said:


> Very cool Keith! Could you give noobs like me an idea on how to do that? Lens & light setup and general technique? I'd love to give that a try!! Sounds like fun!
> Awesome shots, simple but so nice!


Very basic and crappy drawing, but this is basically all you have to do:





Get the flash off camera, and aimed anywhere but where the camera is pointing, set up something that's going to make some smoke in front of the camera, fire away.


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 7, 2010)

O|||||||O said:


> Very basic and crappy drawing, but this is basically all you have to do:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks Josh! One more question then! The colors come from gel on the flash? If I have no gel, I can do like you said and do it in PP. But in the case of #3, how did he get multiple colors? Multiple flashes with different gels? Or a lot of PP?

Thanks a lot!!


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

I've always done it bare flash, color in PP - but you can do the same with gels.

You do have a little bit of an edge in PP though, since you can do gradients.  (Which kick ass for this kind of thing.)

As far as how Keith did #3, I'd like to know too, lol!


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

BTW - I don't know what lens Keith used, but personally - I've found that my 100mm macro works best.
(I have the non-L version - I just put the red line on the drawing for laughs.   )


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 7, 2010)

O|||||||O said:


> BTW - I don't know what lens Keith used, but personally - I've found that my 100mm macro works best.
> (I have the non-L version - I just put the red line on the drawing for laughs.   )



Thanks Josh!! With your answers, I'll be able to give it a try in a near future. I don't have my off camera cable yet for my speedlight, but I'll try something out with my underwater strobes. My monsters should provide more than enough light! 

Sure you manage great things without an L-version anyway!
Now lets wait on Keith to tell us his secrets on #3


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

Doesn't Nikon have wireless flash capability built in?  (One nice plus for Nikon...)

If your camera has a PC connection, PC cords are cheap.  It seems that most digital bodies don't have them though...

There's always the Hong Kong wireless triggers.  I got mine for $25 on amazon (from Cowboy Studios).  They're cheap, but I have never had a single problem as long as the receiver had fresh batteries.


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 7, 2010)

O|||||||O said:


> Doesn't Nikon have wireless flash capability built in?  (One nice plus for Nikon...)
> 
> If your camera has a PC connection, PC cords are cheap.  It seems that most digital bodies don't have them though...
> 
> There's always the Hong Kong wireless triggers.  I got mine for $25 on amazon (from Cowboy Studios).  They're cheap, but I have never had a single problem as long as the receiver had fresh batteries.



Funny thing, I have a off camera cord coming from Hong-Kong that should come in in the coming days. I also have a wireless trigger coming up! 
Wireless flash capability built-in? Really? I'll have to look into my manual. I shot with a Quarantay flash though, I'm not sure if it needs to be Nikon. I'll read about it.

Once again, thanks


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

CLS?  I think that's what you Nikon guys call it.


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## Erikah672 (Dec 7, 2010)

KmH said:


> Erikah672 said:
> 
> 
> > Nice Images.... but why in #2 does it look like their is a person holding something in the lower right hand corner?
> ...



Humm.... I still see something their, and no i'm not on anything. Some funky coloring that i'm seeing. Looks like you did some cloning or editing to it and forgot that little section. This time i'm on a different computer screen and i'm still seeing it.


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## Josh66 (Dec 7, 2010)

I don't see it either...


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## KmH (Dec 7, 2010)

Marc-Etienne said:


> Very cool Keith! Could you give noobs like me an idea on how to do that? Lens & light setup and general technique? I'd love to give that a try!! Sounds like fun!
> Awesome shots, simple but so nice!


I had a pretty good idea how to do it, but to verify my precepts and save some trial and error time, why not do what I did, an internet search.

how to make photos of smoke - Bing=


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## KmH (Dec 7, 2010)

Erikah672 said:


> Humm.... I still see something their, and no i'm not on anything. Some funky coloring that i'm seeing. Looks like you did some cloning or editing to it and forgot that little section. This time i'm on a different computer screen and i'm still seeing it.


 Ok. :thumbup:


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## KmH (Dec 7, 2010)

O|||||||O said:


> As far as how Keith did #3, I'd like to know too, lol!


#3 was made with a black background.

In Photoshop, I made an Invert adjustment layer (or, you can make a 'Curves' adjustment layer and in the 'Curves' drop down box select Negative). Then I made a new layer with a 'Color' blending mode. Picked a soft edged brush, picked a foreground color and painted it where I wanted that color.

I made a new layer for each color I choose and each layer had the blending mode set to 'Color'.

I lowered the opacity of each color layer.


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## Marc-Etienne (Dec 7, 2010)

KmH said:


> O|||||||O said:
> 
> 
> > As far as how Keith did #3, I'd like to know too, lol!
> ...



Thanks for the step-by-step description. That totally answered my question, now it's time to see if the student can surpassed the master  right... I doubt it will happen, but I'm hoping for good results. 
Thanks for the inspiration


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## DirtyDFeckers (Dec 7, 2010)

I'm going to give this a shot pretty soon... These are awesome


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