Process Smoke Photo - Tutorial

This is a tutorial for taking photos of smoke and how to process them.

The setup:

For the sake of this tutorial I am going to assume that you have a DSLR. For best results you will need an off camera flash, a reflector, a black background and a tripod. Set your camera up on the tripod. I use incense to create my smoke. Use one stick for thin fine smoke. If you want your smoke to be heavier or swirly use two sticks of incense at the same time. If you want to make very dense smoke then you need to get a bit creative. What I did for the example that I am going to use is cut the bottom off of a pop bottle and remove the lid. Then I took a metal coat hanger and bent it into a circle to make a base and then have it go up and attach it to the pop bottle using tape. The idea here is to elevate the pop bottle over the two sticks of incense. This will result in smoke building up inside the bottle then coming out the top. It works like a chimney. You can cover the top of the bottle with your hand for awhile to allow the smoke to build up. I usually set this up on top of a few boxes. I then position the boxes between the camera and the black background. Keep in mind that you want the distance between the incense and the background to be double the distance between the incense and the camera. Now position your flash on one side of the incense and the reflector on the other. Two key points with the flash. Ensure it's not hitting your background and it's not hitting your camera. Make sure your camera's view only has smoke and background in it. Auto focus on the bottle then switch to manual focus.

Camera settings:

I use a Nikon d300 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I find I get the best results shooting at f/8. Set your camera to aperture priority at f/8. I use auto white balance. Set your camera to save the images in raw format. From here you kinda have to play around depending on the power of your flash and then lens that you are using. Your flash power needs to be enough to light up the smoke but not too bright as to over expose it. Most dslr's have a histogram an you can use it to determine if your shot's are over exposed. This step is mostly trial and error. Be patient and try different things. You may have to move your flash closer or farther away. You might have to move your camera as well.

Photoshop:

Raw File

After you transfer your raw files to your computer you can open in photoshop. I use open as smart object. This is what my raw image looked like. From here I begin editing the camera raw settings. Now this will vary from image to image but here are the settings I used for this particular photo.

One thing about these settings that I don't normally adjust is the white balance. However, you can and if you do you will notice how the color of the image changes. If you switch it to flash the smoke with be more white. I like to leave it because I like the blue hue that the flash creates if it's just left as shot. If you want to add color to the photo later you can switch to flash here or use the method I will explain later. Keep a close eye on the histogram while making adjustments here. You don't want high levels on the right. This results in too much white and overexposure. White is bad with smoke especially if you want to add color because the white will stay white and not take on any color. I know that sounds strange but even though we think of all smoke as white it really isn't. It is some degree of grey. I brought up the exposure because my flash was set low. I then added fill light to ensure that all the smoke was visible. I increase the blacks in order to fill out the background. I find it makes it cleaner and crisper. I bump up the contrast but you really need to be careful here because too much contrast will cause over exposure. I then add clarity to make the smoke look more crisp.








To the left is my histogram from camera raw. You will notice there are no high levels on the right. The high levels on the left indicate the black from the background. Now click on ok and we are ready to proceed to the next steps.

Once the file is opened in photoshop as a smart object the next step is duplicate layer. After you duplicate the layer change the blending mode for the new layer to multiply. This will make the image much darker but we will fix that.

Now select Image/Adjustments/Shadows/Highlights. Under the shadows increase the amount to 100% and the tonal width to 60%. Leave everything else as is and click ok. You will notice the image is a bit lighter but still probably not enough.



Now click on Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Curves. This will bring up a curve tab. You can adjust how bright or dark your image is here. By bending the curve up and to the left it will get lighter or down and to the right it will get darker. Again this will vary depending on your results but here is the curve I used.

Your next step is to add contrast. Contrast really makes or breaks your smoke images. I find that there is a fine line between too much and not enough and figuring out what works best takes a great deal of experimenting. Click on Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Levels. This brings up the levels tab. There are various ways of making adjustments here but the ones I prefer are the 3 tabs underneath the histogram. The left one is black, the middle is grey and the right one is white. As you can see for this image I adjusted the black slider slightly to the right. Keep in mind that when you move one slider it is probably going to move the others as well. I also moved the grey slider slightly to the right and the white slider I moved a bit to the left. As you move these sliders you will see immediately  how it changes your image. Again each image is going to be different and it takes experimentation to get it just right.When you are done click Layer/Flatten Image.

That about covers the main process that I use for smoke and here is my results. It's a significant difference from the original raw file and no color was added. The blue that is in the smoke is from the flash. If you leave the white balance settings on your camera at auto and you don't change the white balance in camera raw you will get blue smoke every time. Now what do you do if you don't want your smoke to be blue? Well what I do instead of changing the white balance is a create a new layer. Click Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Black & White. The black and white adjustment window will pop up and I usually just click on auto. This will convert your smoke to a nice grey scale. From here you can click on Layer/New. Change the blending mode of this new layer to overlay. Now either paint color or use the gradient tool or whatever method you like to add color.

Want to put your new smoke onto another image. Easy. Use the selection tool to select the part you want to use. Edit/Copy. Then paste it onto another image. It will show up as a layer. Change the blending mode to screen and that will make all the black go away and you are off and running.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope it helps you with creating beautiful smoke images. I would love to hear your comments and I would especially like to see the images you created using this tutorial. So feel free to leave comments and links to your images.

From the Reeds

It was looking to be a pretty dull sunset tonight. I decided to head out anyway and scout out a lake that was close to town and try find a good spot for the sunrise for Saturday morning. When I got out to the lake the sky was full of color as the sun had already gone down. I braved walking into the marsh to set up the tripod. I had to be quick because I was getting swarmed with mosquitoes. Those little suckers were starving. I was fresh meat and they hadn't eaten in days. I got the camera set up. Fired off 9 shots as I swatted mosquitoes off of me. Grabbed the camera and got out of there.

Canada Day Fireworks 2012

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Canda Day 2012 in Edmonton, AB. Here are several shots that I took of the fireworks that were shot off downtown by the high level bridge. I sat on a hill in Victoria Park with my friend Karl, his wife and daughter. There was a very large crowd this year and I don't think they were disappointed this time around. It was a pretty decent display with a wide array of colors and firework types. There was fuzzy streamers and winding snakes. Flashy sparklers and big poppers. We saw speeders and slow winders. Twisties and swirlies. 

There was white ones, blue ones and green. Bright red, yellow and varying ones in between. 


It was a good show and this was my first time photographing fireworks. It was really fun and I can't wait for my next chance to try. 


I made up those firework types just in case you were wondering. Dr. Suess seemed to possess my mind for a moment there. 




I hope you enjoy the photos and if you don't mind I would like some feedback on which one or ones you like the most. They are all numbered so if you state in the comments which photos you prefer it would be greatly appreciated.

Twin Forks

I was walking home on my way from photographing fireworks for the Canada Day celebration. All of a sudden the western sky was lit up so bright. A huge thunder storm was taking place. I set up the camera and tripod and decided to try and capture some lightning. It wasn't going so well. After all this was the first time I even attempted this. A man walked by and offered some advice. He asked if I managed to capture any yet and I said yes just a little one. He then said "You have to be fast". I chuckled in my head. I am not lightning fast. Anyways there was many a flash of lightning and each time I was too slow. It was getting a bit frustrating. Then all of a sudden the upper sky lit up. I pressed and held my remote release and then these two huge bolts forked out of the clouds. It was pretty awesome to see and even more awesome to see that I had captured it with my camera. Fireworks and lightning in the same day is pretty special. Then again it was a special day. Happy Birthday Canada. 

Fireworks pictures to follow.

Early to Rise

Early to Rise

Set my alarm for 3:30 am this morning. Woke up got dressed and left the house just before 4:00 am. I had been wanting to catch a sunrise for sometime but getting up early is difficult for me. I forced myself to bed early and managed to get up. I had picked this spot some time ago and was hoping for some thin strips of clouds near the horizon. I wasn't disappointed. The colors were fantastic as the sun rose. Some of the shots I took before this one had some bright reds but I knew as the sun climbed into that layer of clouds I would get some beams of light. So I waited.

Pure Gold

This one was taken a few minutes later. It was taken with some different settings on the camera and the post processing was very different. 

Green Giant

I called up my friend +Karl Stevens to see if he wanted to go out and take some photos tonight. I mentioned to him that I wanted to try taking pictures indoors. He suggested we try out the pedways downtown. So we headed downtown and as it turns out I only ended up taking one shot indoors. I thought I was bored with taking shots that I had to take extra time processing the sky. Well, I was wrong. One can always choose to take the extra creative path and take it to an extra level. In this shot the sky is over processed. The skyscraper and other buildings were left out of that. One thing I noticed about taking photos of tall buildings is that it is extremely difficult to get the lines running straight. The left line of the small building on the right is perfectly vertical but as you can see the rest of the lines are not. I am sure this is a matter of positioning with the camera and I plan on exploring this aspect further. 


I hope you like it. Any and all comments are appreciated.

City of Festivals

City of Festivals

Edmonton has earned the name City of Festivals because it plays host to so many festivals during the course of a year. This summer will create some excellent opportunity for +Edmonton Photographers to capture some great images during these festivals. So I present to you courtesy of the Edmonton Sun a list of some of this summers events. Get your cameras ready and feel free to share your images with +One Edmonton Summer either on google+ or on facebook.

June 22 - June 24 * Summer Solstice Fest - University of Alberta
June 21 - July 3     * The Works Festival - Churchill Square
June 22 - July 1     * Jazz Fest - Various Locations
June 26 - July 22   * Freewill Shakespeare - Hawrelak Park
June 28 - July 8     * Feats Festival of Dance - Various Locations
June 28 - July 1     * Boonstock - Gibbons, AB
July 03   - July 8     * Historic Fest - Various Locations
July 06   - July 15   * Street Performers Festival - Churchill Square
July 06   - July 08   * Triathlon Festival - Hawrelak Park
July 15                     * Sourdough Raft Race - Along the River
July 14   - July 22   * Edmonton Indy - City Center Airport
July 19   - July 28   * Taste of Edmonton - Churchill Square
July 19                     * Capital Ex Parade - 99 St & 102 Ave
July 20   - July 29   * Capital Ex - Exhibition Grounds
Aug 02   - Aug 05   * Big Valley Jamboree - Camrose
Aug 03   - Aug 05   * Bluegrass Festival - Stony Plain
Aug 04   - Aug 06   * Heritage Festival - Hawrelak Park
Aug 09   - Aug 12   * Folk Music Festival - Gallagher Park
Aug 10   - Aug 12   * Animethon - MacEwan Campus
Aug 16   - Aug 26   * The Fringe Festival - Old Strathcona
Aug 17   - Aug 19   * Dragon Boat Festival - Louse McKinney Park
Aug 17   - Aug 18   * Rock Music Festival - Hawrelak Park
Aug 18   - Aug 19   * Latin Festival - Churchill Square
Aug 24   - Aug 26   * Blues Festival - Hawrelak Park
Aug 31   - Sept 3    * Symphony Under the Sky - Hawrelak Park

There are a few smaller events that I didn't list. If you are interested you can reference the June 17, 2012 issue of the Edmonton Sun for more information.

If asked we will try to provide any information on any of the events taking place in Edmonton this summer.

Feel free to share this post!

Enjoy Your Summer