Dancing Smoke Update

Since I am practically newbie when it comes to editing in Photoshop Elements, which has a fairly steep learning curve, it took me good part of a day to figure out how to put different colors into same smoke. I learn the best by just hacking at it on my own, this way I will remember the technique for very long time. Of course I had a great help from fellow blogger The Bonnie 5, very talented photographer, and also my books on PSE7. This was real fun project and I am sure that I will return to it once it warms up, I was shooting in a garage where it was just above freezing. Now I have to find another indoor project to shoot. Maybe I will clean basement instead…nah, not fun!

Dancing Smoke

Actually, I should have called it Smoke Dancing with Photoshop, it would be more accurate. This is so simple to photograph, once you know how. There are quite a few variables for these shots. Aperture, synch speed with flash, ISO, distance of flash from smoke, distance of smoke from background… It is definitely better to take these shots in a large and draft free room. I have tried to do it in a bathroom with exhaust fan (my incense sticks stink!) but there was so much stray light bouncing all over the place that the background was grey no matter how much I choked down the side shields on my flash gun. Out to the garage I went. What a difference the large space makes! Background was so black it didn’t need any retouching and I had a space to move the flash around. It is fun to find all sorts of shapes in these smoke photographs.

Doesn't it look like spine and a skul?

I see hummingbird head.