Smoke art

[bass_junkie83]

I've put this off for quite some time, but it seems to be one of those things that everyone has to have a go at some time.
So Saturday i had a spare few minutes and had a bit of a play.

Got so many more to go through, but these are some of my favourites so far.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

 

[cduffy]

All great but for me, numbers 2 & 4 are stunning.

Haven't seen these before on the white background, could you offer any tips to achieve this?

 

[bass_junkie83]

Thanks. It's quite simple, in photoshop just invert the colours.

 

[John Mc]

Invert the colours, White will be black and black will be White, there's a few ways to change the colour of the smoke, I'd suggest saturation and hue, how I did mines.


I must say though, these are amazing shots, so sharp and the colours crisp. Well done

 

[cduffy]

Cheers Dave & John, I didn't realise this was done in PP but simple when you think about it (my brain in still in weekend mode!!).

 

[wookielover]

number 4 is very cool , may i ask how you achieved the PP ?

 

[bass_junkie83]

Sure. #4 has probably had the least work done on it out of all of them.

I open the raw file in photoshop, at the raw adjustment box i tweak the black clip point and exposure to control the brightness of the smoke and make sure the background is totally black. Then add a bit of clarity boost to make it a bit crisper.

The smoke naturally had a bit of blue tint to it in places, so when i inverted the colours so that the background went white and the smoke went black, the bue also inverts. The opposite of blue is green, hence the green tints.

If you want the tins another colour, use the hue/saturation control to change it.


For the ones that are all one colour, i desaturated them upon importing the raw file. Then add a colour layer on top and set the blend mode to overlay which will colour the smoke. Then you can adjust the opacity of the colour layer to how you like it.

 

[wookielover]

thanks very much

 

[TheThistle]

Wicked stuff, love'em all.

I love playing around with this stuff, only one problem though, the room gets filled with smoke and smelly stuff so quick.

 

[alcatraz73]

Loving number 2 especially.... clever stuff!

 

[nacspics]

Love this pics.
Is difficult to do it?

 

[bass_junkie83]

Thanks.
No it's actually really easy. The set up was a black cloth background on a table top, the camera on a tripod, i happened to be using a 50mm f1.8 for these. A studio flash to one side pointing slightly forward with barn doors and honeycomb.

Shooting at about f11, 1/125 and adjust flash power to suit.

 

[nacspics]

Thanks.
No it's actually really easy. The set up was a black cloth background on a table top, the camera on a tripod, i happened to be using a 50mm f1.8 for these. A studio flash to one side pointing slightly forward with barn doors and honeycomb.

Shooting at about f11, 1/125 and adjust flash power to suit.

Thanks for the infos.
I'll try some day.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Number 2 is my favourite. It looks really simple, but works well.

 

[Y15HAL]

These are stunning mate!!

I wouldn't know where to start doing stuff like this!

 

[Bidz]

Wow these are nice, what would you use as a source? A cigarette? A match? Stick of incense?

 

[bass_junkie83]

Thanks.

I used an incense stick. Here is a shot straight out of the camera.

 

[bass_junkie83]

I done a few more of these last night with some of the shots i had left.

Lady in red?

I like this one, looks like ink being squirted into water.

Two tone.

I'm sure there is a bit of batman in there somewhere.

Simples.

Cool blue.

 

[bass_junkie83]

Last ones, i promise.