Dmitri007
Colored smoke #1
I like to read articles in photography magazines that show new tricks and projects. Recently I read one explaining how to make colored smoke pictures. I went home, set it up that evening and shoot a bunch of smoky stuff :). This image was one of the final ones. I do not know if you know how to do it, or interested in it, but I thought it may be interesting to learn for some. So, here is the low down on it:
Get incense sticks that smolder when lit, thus producing the smoke we want. You will need the area you are shooting in to be free of wind or strong air movements, so the smoke is controlled and not blown away. Thus, indoor is ideal, and make sure to not set off any smoke alarms :) Next thing you want is a black background to contrast with the white smoke. I got best results using a flash that was off the camera, to light up the smoke from an angle. Try different angles, up or down – the goal is to light up the smoke and give it better definition, while separating it from the background. So, light spill is important to control, because you want the background to stay black. To help it, either move the sticks away from the background further, or isolate the light beam by wrapping around a piece of paper around the flash head, for example. Then shoot away at different shutter speeds and aperture setting to suit the look you are going for. For me higher shutter speeds worked better to help freeze the smoky creatures.
Now, once the images are in, we load the beast ones in Photoshop and do the following:
Duplicate a master layer, then invert it (Command-I (or Control-I for you Windows cats.). This makes the smoke black, and the background white. Now, we are half way there. Next, you can colorize it, by selecting the Saturation adjustment and playing with the “hue”. If you want to take it one step further, and get different colors like I have here, then here is what you do: duplicate the layer that is inverted (has white background), and set the blend mode (in the layers palette) to “color”. Now, hit “B” to select a brush and choose a color you want for your brush to paint with. I used a medium size brush with somewhat soft edges. Next, paint the color onto any section of the smoke you want. Change colors to have a multicolor smoke creature :) Finally, to add more definition to the creature you have, use contrast/lightness adjustment to eliminate any fuzzy areas and make it sharper.
This is it, I hope you enjoy something new :)
Colored smoke #1
I like to read articles in photography magazines that show new tricks and projects. Recently I read one explaining how to make colored smoke pictures. I went home, set it up that evening and shoot a bunch of smoky stuff :). This image was one of the final ones. I do not know if you know how to do it, or interested in it, but I thought it may be interesting to learn for some. So, here is the low down on it:
Get incense sticks that smolder when lit, thus producing the smoke we want. You will need the area you are shooting in to be free of wind or strong air movements, so the smoke is controlled and not blown away. Thus, indoor is ideal, and make sure to not set off any smoke alarms :) Next thing you want is a black background to contrast with the white smoke. I got best results using a flash that was off the camera, to light up the smoke from an angle. Try different angles, up or down – the goal is to light up the smoke and give it better definition, while separating it from the background. So, light spill is important to control, because you want the background to stay black. To help it, either move the sticks away from the background further, or isolate the light beam by wrapping around a piece of paper around the flash head, for example. Then shoot away at different shutter speeds and aperture setting to suit the look you are going for. For me higher shutter speeds worked better to help freeze the smoky creatures.
Now, once the images are in, we load the beast ones in Photoshop and do the following:
Duplicate a master layer, then invert it (Command-I (or Control-I for you Windows cats.). This makes the smoke black, and the background white. Now, we are half way there. Next, you can colorize it, by selecting the Saturation adjustment and playing with the “hue”. If you want to take it one step further, and get different colors like I have here, then here is what you do: duplicate the layer that is inverted (has white background), and set the blend mode (in the layers palette) to “color”. Now, hit “B” to select a brush and choose a color you want for your brush to paint with. I used a medium size brush with somewhat soft edges. Next, paint the color onto any section of the smoke you want. Change colors to have a multicolor smoke creature :) Finally, to add more definition to the creature you have, use contrast/lightness adjustment to eliminate any fuzzy areas and make it sharper.
This is it, I hope you enjoy something new :)