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IARTS

This document provides information on smoke art photography techniques. It discusses that smoke art photography involves photographing smoke as the subject. It lists the necessary equipment including a camera, flash, incense stick, background, and reflector. It provides tips for camera settings like using a fast shutter speed, small aperture, and low ISO. It also discusses setup considerations and that smoke art photography involves experimentation to capture the movement of smoke.

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Nova Estrada Kionisala
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75 views9 pages

IARTS

This document provides information on smoke art photography techniques. It discusses that smoke art photography involves photographing smoke as the subject. It lists the necessary equipment including a camera, flash, incense stick, background, and reflector. It provides tips for camera settings like using a fast shutter speed, small aperture, and low ISO. It also discusses setup considerations and that smoke art photography involves experimentation to capture the movement of smoke.

Uploaded by

Nova Estrada Kionisala
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Smoke art photography

techniques

Prepared by : NOVA E. KIONISALA


BTLEd AFA 2
Smoke art photography is one of those genres
that’s an acquired taste. You can’t really
appreciate it right off the bat, but as soon as
you learn about it in greater detail and get to
appreciate its highly unique artistry, you begin
to fall in love with it. In its purest and simplest
interpretation, it’s photography where the
subject is smoke.
EQUIPMENT
• Camera – You need a camera that allows you to take control of the shooting
modes. You want to have control over the shutter speed, aperture, and zoom.
Most DSLR cameras allow the user to control these parameters.
• Flash – You need an off-camera flash. You can either use a wireless flash trigger
or a flash cable.
• Incense Stick – You need a source of smoke. The most commonly used item is
an incense stick.
• Background – You need a dark color background. I personally use and
recommend black.
• Reflector – I recommend using a reflector so that the smoke trail has equal light
hitting from every side.
Camera & Flash Settings
• Lighter – For lighting the incense stick.
• Tripod – I use a tripod because it holds my still camera in
one place. I don’t want to refocus for every shot. You can
also try shooting without a tripod and experiment.
• Room with ventilation – You want the air to be able to
exit the room. Extra smoke in the room will decrease the
picture quality.
• Patience – As mentioned above, it is one of the most
important tools in this photo session.
SETUP
• You need to make sure that there is no light spilling on the
background. Remember, our purpose is to focus on the smoke and to
minimize the attention on the background. You also cannot afford any
light hitting the lens as it will cause lens flares to appear in the image.
Below are some techniques for the setup:
• Pull out your background sheet and hang it in the back.
• Place the incense stick 3-5 feet away from the backdrop.
• Put the wireless flash 2-3 feet away from the incense stick (left or
right side).
• You need to consider some important factors when shooting smoke.
Understanding these settings will help you become a better photographer in
general so don’t hesitate to take some time and learn.
• Shutter Speed – Since smoke is constantly moving, you need to have a fast
shutter speed to avoid any blur or movement.
• Aperture – You want a great depth of field to capture details in the smoke
trail. I recommend using a small aperture (larger f-stop number).
• ISO – Since there is very low light, smoke will show up grainy or noisy and a
high ISO will only add to this. I recommend using a low ISO for these pictures.
• Light – I use my flash at full strength because with low ISO, fast shutter
speed, and small aperture there is a need for a strong light to get the
exposure right.
The beauty of smoke art photography is that there isn’t
a rulebook in place to dictate what the exact, correct
way of photographing smoke is. This allows you quite a
bit of freedom in this genre, which is ideal for a bit of
experimentation! Don’t be afraid to snap a lot of
pictures. You may end up discarding most of them and
retaining just a couple, but that’s all part of
experimentation.
Don’t be discouraged if the first several shots don’t
turn out how you envisioned; after all, smoke’s a
notoriously hard subject to shoot! Smoke art
photography epitomizes the trial-and-error process.
MY SMOKE ART PHOTOGRAPHY
PREPARED BY: NOVA E. KIONISALA
BTLED AFA 2

REFERENCE :

https://contrastly.com/what-is-smoke-art-photography/
https://www.picturecorrect.com/smoke-photography-tips/

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