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.
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.
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” that I should have watched before I started, it would have saved me a few frustrating hours!
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!
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” that I should have watched before I started, it would have saved me a few frustrating hours!
Some of the shots remind me of ghostly X-rays, quite spooky really!
Cheers
Dennis
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).
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.
Great shots Dennis. Amazing series of images.
Thanks for sharing.
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.
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
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.
