Blowing a little smoke

[supernova1965]

First go at photographing smoke:)

This was photographed with my new lens 50mm 1:1.8

F-stop F/1.8
Exposure 1/40 sec
ISO 100
Focal length 50mm
Flash

[adman]

wow they are great! Did you do any at shorter shutter speeds to see how that would go?

Adam

[leon]

Love em Warren, that has always been on my agenda, but have never got around to it, great stuff.

Leon

[supernova1965]

No but I will give that a go:thumbsup:

[supernova1965]

Thanks Leon,

It is raining cats and dogs at the moment and I am not getting any contract work right now so I am bored.

[Octane]

Abstract. I like it.

The noise would typically detract from such images, but, in this case, I think it actually enhances the ringlets.

Nice.

H

[Omaroo]

Yeah, very cool Woz. :thumbsup: As Humayun said, noisy, but it lends a certain je nes't sais quoi to it .

[supernova1965]

Thanks guy's on the noise even though you say it enhances the images what can I do to lessen it I used a low iso:question:

[bloodhound31]

I'm diggin' 'em mate. Keep 'em comin'!

Baz.

[bartman]

Hey Warren Great shots!
You can spend hours shooting smoke curls and whisps, I know I did:D.
You might like to try colour gels over the flash to give the smoke a different look:thumbsup:.


Thats a good question....I sometimes have shot at low iso ( not necessarily smoke) and had that high iso look to it ( grainy).
Curious to an answer........

By the way what did you use for the smoke?

Cheers
Bartman

[supernova1965]

Thanks Bart

I did find it addictive esspecially on a rainy day. I will try the flash trick out.
I used an incense stick for the smoke. What made me give it a go is the mag digital slr photography has a how to in it's Dec 2011 issu.e.

[Omaroo]

G'day Woz... :)

The only thing you can really do is crank your flash power right up, or use a more powerful one. Did you use a proper SpeedLite or your camera's built-in unit? Low level light and the fact that smoke is made of particulate matter, it'll be a challenge to really reduce the noise any further. What you've done looks good anyway! Does your camera go to ISO50?

[supernova1965]

G'day Chris

I only have the on camera flash atm I may try a backlight with a desklamp see if that helps. No my camera only goes to ISO 100 so am at the lower limit.:thanx:

[jjjnettie]

:) they're beautiful shots Warren.
I just KNEW it was incense that you used. There is nothing else that generates smoke that way. The curliques!!

[Octane]

What are you using to process the images?

To me it looks like you've pushed JPGs too far.

H

[supernova1965]

I was using gimp and it is entirely possible I have pushed them too far I am at the beginning of the learning curve:confused2:. I will post one almost straight out of the camera just some slight processing using View NX2 Nikons software.:thumbsup:

[Octane]

Yeah, I was going to suggest using some proper software.

Shoot RAW, not JPG.

Disk is cheap, so, no excuse, really.

H

[Omaroo]

Good point Humayun. D'oh. I normally associate artefacting with that, not noise as such - but you're right... they're just really small artefacts.

Do you have an Intel-based Mac at all Warren?

[supernova1965]

I do shoot raw and process them in Gimp then to JPG's for upload to IIS. So H is Gimp not proper software :P unfortunately I can't yet afford Photoshop.

NO:sadeyes: I had the G5 but it developed bad capacitors and couldn't be saved:sadeyes::sadeyes::sadeyes:

[supernova1965]

Though the prices are coming down I may be able to afford one soon.:cool::thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

In which case you can then buy "PixelMator" - a new Photoshop-like application that uses your Macs GPU for high performance. I use it about 80% of the time now and love it. Only 30 or 40 bucks too - a bargain, and it was the Mac App Store's best performer last year. It's superior to GIMP in so many ways.

http://www.pixelmator.com

[supernova1965]

Sounds good:thumbsup:

[Octane]

By proper software, I meant something that is designed to decode the NEFs

Using the Nikon software is the best thing you can do.

Then, once decoded, export as TIFF and edit in your software of choice.

H

[Omaroo]

I think he's mentioned that he uses Capture NX already, and pulling large TIFFs into Pixelmator is something I've done a fair number of for work. Works well..

[Paddy]

Very nice images Warren. Beautiful!