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Hi,
Can anyone share a few tips on how to nicely photograph smoke?? be it coming from a lit cigarette [ i want the smoke to appear in those somewhat wavy lines rising from the cigarette [:)] ] or those billows od smoke rising from hot food.
will look forward to hearing from you
Sounds like off camera lighting is your best partner here. Theoretically, you could position your off camera light to an angle that would refract light on the smoke particles - just like how rave parties illuminate the scene with lasers and smoke. Alternatively, slow shutter speeds would make a nice trail.
My 2 cents.
What he said.
I lean towards the faster shutter speeds vs. time lapse, unless you like having a hazy cloud.
Pay attention to lighting, but also background. Smoke in the light is pretty... light. Dark backgrounds (at least behind the smoke) allow you to see the smoke well.
I'd recommend positioning your cigarette against a dark background. I shot the attached tripod mounted, manual focus & 430EX mounted on the camera. I bounced the light off the ceiling & used a remote shutter release.
Exif (Manual mode @ f2.8 for 3.2seconds). The original was a little flat so I added a blue filter in CS4. I hope this helps.
http://www.travischancephotography.c...58_iuddM-M.jpg
If you're going to be doing tripod based work with a stationary subject I would experiment with your flash's stroboscopic (or repeating) flash mode (I know the 580 ex II has it, not sure about others)