_DSF3930
Nov, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this picture in my basement. It is dark down their so I have total control of the lightingTime
I started in the morning while i was energised for the day as had to setup everything up and try out several approachesLighting
To take this shot, I setup a black background sheet and on a stool put a black tray, on which I had a couple if incense sticks burning. (cutting them down to a small size made them easier to handle and by putting them together, concentrated the smoke rather well). Then on either side of the tray, I set up 2 flash units. one with white light going through a rolled sheet of black paper (like a wide snoot), aimed at the higher end of the smoke. On the other side, was a flash with a blue gel and a narrower snoot aimed towards the bottom of the smoke. The idea was to try and catch some different shades in the smoke. I had to take several shots to get the flash strength right. I don't recall the exact settings I used, but the blue narrow snoot was the strongest and the white one a little lower.Equipment
When I took this picture, I only has my Fuji X100T, which is a great camera, but designed more for street work than this kind of thing (mounted on a tripod directly in front of the incense sticks). If I was doing the shot again with my Nikon D750, I think I would use my 85mm lens and a much lower ISO. Anyhow, The settings I used for this were.. ISO: 6400 (Very high, but the X100 is pretty good noise wise) Ap: F4 Speed: 1/15Inspiration
I have seem some smoke work around and thought it would be fun to have a go. It takes some time as you need to take a lot of shots, but withing those you can usually find a lot of interesting ones that you could useEditing
For postprocessing (Lightroom), I cropped the photo slightly to remove the incense sticks and played around with the exposure/color settings a bit to try and reduce the noise and bring out the colour (changing the hues a bit on the upper part). It was during this editing that I noticed the face like shape and rotated the image 90 degrees. (In reality, the blue part is the smoke rising)In my camera bag
If I am doing street work or wanting to travel light, then its the X100T usually with the wide angle conversion lens. I also have a little thumb grip that fits into the hotshoe making it much more comfortable to hold. Otherwise it;s the Nikon D750 which I love, with the 50mm or 85mm lens, both of which I love. If I have neither of these, then it's the phone (best camera is the one you have with you ;)Feedback
For this shot, I would say, take your time, try out different flash strengths and camera speeds. My best guess is a noice fast lens as was pushing it a bit with the X100T
