Basic equipment setup shown below, a torch would be useful as you need to work in the dark!!
Camera settings to start:
Camera mounted on tripod
Aperture priority mode (around f7)
External flash ( I found using a homemade snoot stopped the flash from spilling onto the background or into the lens. This can be as simple as a small cardboard tube.)
- With the lights on, place the incense stick in the holder and manually focus on the centre.
- Light the incense stick and turn out the lights.
- You’re aiming for a vertical column of smoke but a small amount of movement will create the swirling effects you’re after.
- Take plenty of shots whilst varying the swirling effect.
Photoshop manipulation
1) Open your image into Photoshop. This was my start image.
2) Create a new levels layer (Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Levels)
3) You can see that the histogram is over to the far left. Adjust the black point so that the background is completely black. Then adjust the middle slider so that the smoke appears brighter. Don’t overdue the brightness otherwise you’ll introduce to much noise in the image.
4) In this example I have rotated and cropped the image to suit the image.
5) Flatten any levels layers. (Layer > Flatten Image)
6) If you want the image to have a white background, then invert the image (Image > Adjustments > Invert)
7) You’ll now need to remove any unwanted elements to the smoke. In this example you can see wisps’ of smoke in the top right corner.
8) The smoke looks ok as it is, but I would like to colour this example.
9) Add a gradient fill layer. (Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient)
10) Change the colours of the gradient to suit.
11) Change the layer from normal to screen.
Summary
The natural effects of the smoke and the endless variations in colouring means you can create some pretty cool abstract images. You could also try copying the finished image onto new layers and then rotating / flipping them to get a symmetrical shape.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, have fun !!!