Photographing Smoke

Smoke Gets in your Lens

For quite a while I have been wanting to try and photograph smoke.  After doing some Googling, I discovered that the best way to photograph smoke was with a stick of incense against a dark backdrop.  Also of most importance was a fast shutter speed and side lighting to highlight the smoke. 

I set up a black velvet backdrop against the dining room wall where the morning sun comes in through the patio door.  I tried one stick of incense and found that two gave better results with more smoke.  With my D90 secured to the tripod, I used a Nikon 35-70mm 2.8 lens.  The incense stick was placed on the table, close to the backdrop. 

After adjusting my ISO from 400 to 3200, I found that 3200 gave the fastest shutter speed with the dim smoke against the black backdrop.  The D90 was set on manual focus and on Aperture Mode at f/2.8, giving me a shutter speed of 1/80 seconds.   The recommended shutter speed was 1/250 seconds, however without the use of studio lights it was impossible to get  the shutter speed that fast.

In the future, I will set up studio lights and experiment with more of the effects.  This was fun and I even tried catching a fireplace match as it lit.  I think next time, I will try with different matches.  I would like to get the spark as the match first ignites.

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What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been.  I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences. 

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Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

 "Reflecting Nature's Artistry" 

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