Flowing in the Dark
Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in my bedroom, as at home, space is limited and I can't exactly take over part of the house to burn incense in and constantly flash a light at when my family are home. So I make do with what I have.Time
It was some time in the evening when I just got this "urge" to give this method a try. It was still somewhat light outside, but the sun was setting and closing the curtains did a good enough job of lowering the light levels for it. But trying to photograph incense in a small room, when it's warm, with the curtains drawn can get quite irritating, both mentally and physically. Much fun though!Lighting
Being in such a small room, with minimal equipment (a camera on a tripod, and one off camera flash), control was essential! For this shot, the flash was just off 90 degrees from the smoke, with a black dressing gown loosely held up behind the burner (health and safety would have had kittens if this was in a studio!!) and a sheet of black card acting as a screen to minimise the cast off of light onto the makeshift backdrop during flashes. The lighting was so bodged, I was genuinely impressed that I got such a great shot!!Equipment
To get this, I used my Nikon D3300 with 18-55mm kit lens at 55mm, a Neewer Speedlite 750II, Neewer FC16 wireless trigger/receiver and a tripod of some sort (it's a cheap Chinese thing that does a decent enough job). Cheap and cheerful!Inspiration
Being nearly two years ago now, it's hard to recall what exactly inspired me at the time. It may have been an article in a magazine I was reading, or something online, or maybe even just "I haven't burned any incense in a while" with a momentary spark of "OH! OH! OH! I haven't done that yet!". But who doesn't like incense?! It's amazing not just to smell, but to watch, too!!Editing
Due to the limitations of controlling light overflow and lowering contrast due to smoke build up, post-processing was pretty crucial for a "clean" image. To do this, I tweaked the basic settings in Lightroom to adjust exposure and contrast to clean up as best I could. But some other bits weren't quite what I knew they could be, so I went over to Photoshop to finish off with some spot healing and cheeky painting (or was that a different image I worked on?)In my camera bag
When going out, I usually travel light. Partly due to having some back issues lately and partly because too much equipment is actually quite distracting. I often decide on what type of work I'd like to achieve, and make a choice of camera/lens combo from that. But generally, I'll have some camera with a lens attached, my tripod and a cable release as a minimum. Though just lately, I invested in a selection of ND and ND grad filters, and have been taking them with me a lot to get more focused on achieving results as in camera as possible.Feedback
I think the best thing I can suggest for getting something like this is to not do this in a small room! Find a nice big room with adequate ventilation (or at least can be cleared regularly) and have the backdrop at a decent distance. It really will save a lot of work in post later on! Oh, and don't be afraid to experiment with flash direction and angles. Keep shooting at the random patterns that sequence out of the smoke, and you will be sure to get something amazing!! Give it a go, and smell great!!
