Smoke gets in your eyes…

[Dennis]

Hello,

Here are some flash illuminated photos of the smoke rising from a burning incense stick, captured in the semi-darkness of our garage. The colour saturation has been boosted to bring out some of the subtle colours in the otherwise grey looking smoke.

The first session (last night) produced poor pictures as the on-camera flash made it difficult for me to separate the background from the smoke. This morning, I increased the distance between the incense stick and the (black sheet) background and that helped isolate the smoke a little better. Ideally, an off camera flash would be the go.

Thanks for looking!:)

Dennis

[iceman]

I've always wanted to do shots like this!

Nice work Dennis, lovely series. Well executed.

[lacad01]

Great shots.:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Very cool and groovy Dennis. ;)
Love the curlicue in the first image.
I must have a go at this.

[BerrieK]

Dennis they are beautiful. I really like the colour saturation and transparency of the wisps. The pics almost looke like glass sculptures, or gelatinous creatures in the deep sea fluorescing under artificial light.

Thanks for showing us!!

Kerrie

[Dennis]

Thank you for your lovely comments; I’m pleased that my efforts produced some reasonable results as the 1st session proved awful! Here is a very useful YouTube “how to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv39UmuiYNA)” that I should have watched before I started, it would have saved me a few frustrating hours!:doh:

What I found useful:

A darkish room so that you can see the smoke plume in the beam of a torch, for focusing, etc.
A torch for highlighting the smoke plume for visibility, not to illuminate it for the exposure – that will be done by the camera flash.
A well ventilated room so you do not choke on the smoke.
No breeze as the slightest wind makes the smoke deviate.
F8-F16 for max depth of field as the smoke plume moves and dances around.
Manually focus the camera; I used remote Live View tethered to my Notebook computer.
Dangle a white piece of cord down from the rafters in the plane of the smoke to assist with manual focusing.
Use an off-camera flash; I don’t have one so I had to increase the distance of the background to avoid it intruding through being illuminated by the camera flash.
Plenty of practice!
Don’t do this around a smoke alarm!
Double check that you safely extinguish any spent matches or incense sticks!

Some of the shots remind me of ghostly X-rays, quite spooky really!

Cheers

Dennis

[BerrieK]

Dennis, funny you should mention ghostly xrays - your images reminded me of a 3D reconstructive process that we can do at work of the lungs (using volumetric CT scan image data) - but I didnt mention it before because I though people might think I was odd (well, yes I am anyway).

http://www.vitalimages.com/Resources/Images/Common/Lung.jpg



Kerrie

[astroron]

Brilliant Dennis:eyepop:
Kerrie I was also about to mention X-Rays until I read Dennis's post.
Isn't the Human body Bloomin Marvelous:D

[Dennis]

Hi Kerrie

Wow :eyepop: – now THAT is what I call image processing, not the simple 2D LRGB stuff we do around these parts!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

Absolutely brilliant!

Best Regards

Gary

[ving]

funky as!

nice work!

[troypiggo]

Excellent. I've also wanted to try this for some time but haven't gotten around to it. Very well executed.

[Dennis]

Once again, thank you to everyone for those nice words of encouragement! Someone should shoot a series and enter one for this month’s comp – Curves; it would be nice to see an entry with this theme as there always appear to be several graceful curves entangled in the smoke patterns.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

Great shots Dennis. Amazing series of images. :)

Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Hi Jeanette

Thanks for educating me – I just Googled curlicue! I’m now a Fractal genius! :lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Matty – I appreciate you stopping by and having a look, especially when you enjoy the experience! I don’t recollect having seen much from you recently in the Forum, although I’m in a current astro slump and had just had a week off with a rotten cold, so it could be my end! Anyhow, nice to hear from you and I hope you are well.

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

It is always a pleasure viewing your images Dennis. ;) I too appreciate the reply.

You are correct, I have been on a so called hiatus from astronomy over the past couple months. I have just been overly busy and just have not had the time to stay active on the forum. Not to mention the horrible weather as well.

Things are starting to slow down now and I will be once again spending most of my free time viewing the forum. :whistle:

Hope you get well soon. ;)

:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Dennis,

As I viewed this series of images, I couldn't help but notice how each one got progressively better and better.

These would make wonderful desktop backgrounds.

Excellent work.

Regards,
Humayun

[RB]

Fantastic work Dennis !
I was reminded of x-rays too when I first viewed the shots.

As Mike said I've always wanted to try this type of shot.

Well done on a lovely series.

[Ric]

Great photos Dennis, these type of images always look fantastic.

Cheers

[StephenM]

A fantastic set of images Dennis. A few nice "curves" in there as well...

Cheers,
Stephen

[Deeno]

What an amazing effect..
Beautiful!

[sheeny]

Beautiful work, Dennis!:thumbsup:

You've done well to get those X-rays to focus:P.

Very arty!

Al.

[Inmykombi]

Really good work there.
Beautiful images there, kinda ghostly.

Well done.

[firstlight]

If you held off with your entry, I think you might have had a winner for the challenge with those shots. I really enjoyed the second, but they were all great.

[bloodhound31]

Magnificent Dennis!!!!

Baz.

[Dennis]

Thank you everyone, for your nice words of appreciation! This is a relatively easy project for those cloudy nights! I would love to see someone submit an entry for the “Curves” monthly comp…hint, hint Tony!;)

Cheers

Dennis

PS – I’ve got a few incense sticks left if you would like them Tony!:whistle:

[Liz]

Excellent images Dennis!!
Surreal lifeforms in outer space :)

[firstlight]

Too late Dennis, I have already submitted an entry. :)

[Dennis]

Hi Tony

Nothing stopping you replacing your current entry, although I must say, the boys look like they’re having fun!:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[firstlight]

Actually Dennis, I was going to suggest the same thing to you :lol:.

[Tamtarn]

Brilliant set of images Dennis. Just the added saturation has enhanced them beautifully

[Quark]

Hi Dennis,

Very creative, love the effects. They look really alien and quite abstract.
Don't recall ever seeing anything like this previously.

Very well done.
Regards
Trevor

[Kevnool]

Very different Dennis.
Cheers Kev.

[AlexN]

you definitely have an eye for the art mate... they all look fantastic

[Dennis]

Thank you Barb and David, Trevor, Kev and Alex for your words of appreciation!

Cheers

Dennis