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Marcus Hawkins
Photographer and writer Marcus is a former editor of Digital Camera
Smoke can take on many forms, including a raptor
and a lion-headed man Or maybe we’ve just been working too hard…
Get started with creative smoke photography
Shooting smoke trails is a great way to give your indoor photos a breath of fresh air. From organic swirls to ghostly faces, there are possibilities to explore…
Smoke photography is a challenging but rewarding way to spend some time shooting indoors. It’s also a great way to familiarise yourself with a few photography basics: you’ll learn how to set your camera and flashgun manually, as well as how to fine-tune your shots when you process and edit them. It’s amazing the shapes and forms that a few curls and licks of smoke can take on with a simple crop and a rotation – free your mind, and soon you’ll be spotting faces, aliens, dinosaurs and (possibly) cowboys…
An incense stick gives you a slim and relatively manageable plume of smoke, although you’ll need to work in a room where you can open a window to clear the build-up of smoke – and the smell – at regular intervals.
A macro lens will allow you to focus very close to the smoke and pick out sections of the plume, but you’ll be able to get good results with any standard zoom or prime lens. In fact, it’s better to frame your shots a little wider so that you have room to crop them when you process them.
One of the most appealing aspects of smoke photography is that it’s unpredictable. You never know quite what you’re going to get, as the shapes formed by the twisting and swirling smoke plume are constantly changing. You’ll need a black background to make the shapes stand out, as well as a source of light that you can use to illuminate the smoke from behind. Choosing a flashgun will give you the power and control that you need to get sharp results at optimum camera settings. A model that you can operate wirelessly is the most convenient option, as there will be no trailing cables to trip over in the dark. For wireless control, you’ll need a transmitter that slots onto the hotshoe on top of the camera and a receiver that attaches to the bottom of the flashgun. Some cameras and flashguns have the transmitter and receiver functions built in.
Set up the shot
To create sharp shots, you’ll need to set up in the light but work in the dark
You don’t need a lot of space to take smoke shots, but you do need to work in a room with a window, so that you can let fresh air in at regular intervals. I set up in a bathroom; I blocked the gap under the door with a towel to prevent draughts pushing the smoke around, but opened the window and operated the extractor fan between takes.
A piece of black cloth draped over some scrap wood formed the backdrop, with an incense stick as the smoke generator. I didn’t allow the stick to burn right down, as the thicker wisps of smoke would have been too far out of shot. Having a sink to hand meant I could extinguish the lit stick when needed.
Some photographers prefer to shoot this type of shot handheld: when you work with fast shutter speeds and flash in a darkened room, camera shake is rarely a problem. I prefer to use a tripod, though: that way I can manually focus in the right place and set the optimum aperture for the depth of field I need, achieving consistent results.
1 Power up Use fresh batteries in your flashgun, as you’ll end up firing lots of bursts in pursuit of the perfect smoke shot.
2 Background Although you can use black card for the backdrop, I’d recommend black velvet with a matt finish, which will soak up the light. Stretch it out so there are no wrinkles, and give it a rub down with a lint roller to remove any pieces of fluff that might catch the light in the final shot.
3 Burn out When you compose your shot, take the height of the incense stick into account. If you frame too high, you may miss some smoke shapes forming lower down. I always frame with some stick in the shot, as it can simply be cropped out later.
4 Breeze To avoid a spaghetti-like confusion of smoke trails, block any draughts. (Note the towel by the foot of the door in the main picture.)