Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
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Beautiful Coloured Smoke Pictures
sensitivelight.com — Very impressive blog. Check out the other galleries as well!
IvanB- 1430 diggs
- digg it
- DiggityDugged, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7pretty cool, thanks for digging it for us to see
- PimpinOnWelfare, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5#17 is my favorite.
- harusp3x, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0#14 is badass
He should make PS brushes out of them. - xister, on 10/12/2007, -17/+3Hey stupidppl- why don't you stick yer spam up yer ass so we don't have to see it...
- tarmithius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@pimpinonwelfare
They offer that one as a wallpaper
http://sensitivelight.com/wallpaper/walls2.php
@xister
Just block him/her and move on. - PimpinOnWelfare, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3That isn't a wallpaper, it's an avatar. lol
I'm running 1440x900 - babylonian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's really really cool-looking. It's nice to have something beautiful to look at after watching that video on the front page of the cops tazering the protesters. =/
- jameszhao00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just like adobe illustrator splash screen.
- amandaw33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7these are great, but I can't help but picture Snoop at the photo shoot blowin rings for the photographer
- ROFLance, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I wish they were high-res, I'd rotate them as my backgrounds
- infimprob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Phenomenal, I can't decide if it looks more like flame or smoke or fog or all of the above
- ROFLance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19These are pictures are of ordinary smoke that have been post processed on the computer.
The smoke comes from burning incense sticks and was photographed in a studio using off camera flash lighting to the side or rear of the subject. It is important to have a black background and well lit smoke, to produce a high contrast frozen image.
In post processing the pictures with a black background have been edited to change the colour of the smoke. The pictures with a white background were inverted before any colour adjustments were applies.- Whackly, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0Actually they are completely computer generated... in seconds.. by someone clicking a mouse and moving it around.
- rcran, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ya, if you take them into photoshop, invert them, and take the saturation all the way down, you can see it is just smoke.
- ProphetSix, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1http://www.duggmirror.com
- voidofmind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6You should probably only stick to linking that when the site is actually down. . .
- brianez21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This website is holding up amazingly well for the amount of images they have. Just wish there were hi-rez versions to set as my background!
- Towelie, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0colored smoke... :D
wanna get high?!?!?! - buttheadrifle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0#17 is my favorite
- ers35, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They look like backgrounds from Vista.
- Derrekito, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Vista... on fire? Could it be foreshadowing?
- squeevey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think this guy's photos are better http://flickr.com/photos/scienceduck/sets/1594475/
- dunnduggit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The photographer describing his techniques.
"There is of course no right way to photograph smoke, it is more a matter of experimentation with the resources to hand.
I thought I’d write a line or two about my approach to the subject. I took my first smoke pictures about two years ago, and have returned to the subject twice since, both times trying to create something new.
In my opinion the key technical factor is to adequately light the smoke so that it stands out from the background. Before I describe my own contrived method let me sketch out a very simple approach to photographing smoke.
Imagine a darkly appointed room with no shiny surfaces to encourage reflection. See it is lit by one small, high, single pane window, facing towards the sun. If the air in the room is dusty or smoky you will be able to see the whole ray of light from window to floor. If the air in the room is clean the ray will be invisible and just the patch of light on the floor will reflect the sunshine.
In the clean air version set a smoke column to pass through the sunbeam and photograph the smoke against the dark walls of the room. With any camera, and no tricks, simple effective smoke pictures can be taken ready for post processing.
I have not found the right room yet, but I know some people have, and it saves an awful lot of messing about.
What I am looking for in my own work is clearly defined line and shape. I am not trying to create pictures of smoke; I am trying to create pictures by using smoke. I have tried various backgrounds but have only been happy with plain white or plain black backgrounds. To my eye a black or white background more easily disappears to show only the shapes in the smoke.
The smoke source I use is incense sticks; they give off about the same volume of smoke as a cigarette and are cheaper to burn. I have often wondered if a fat cigar would give off denser smoke, but been put off because they need puffing on to keep them alight.
Ventilation is important, and not for the first reason that might come to mind; I am not your nanny. It is true that without ventilation smoke will eventually get in your eyes causing them to sting and stream with tears making picture taking impossible. It is also true that you might run the risk of some terminal lung disease if you inhale too much smoke. Far more important is that, as the air fills up with the fog of dissipated smoke your pictures will be robbed of light, contrast and sharpness.
Typically I will shoot from 2 to 6 feet away from the smoke and include about 10 to 20 inches of the plume. I have the camera mounted on a tripod and use a remote release. It is a lot easier to react to a developing shape if you can see the whole scene than it is looking at a small section through the viewfinder. The camera is pre-focused to the place where the smoke is expected to rise.
Because I have said that I want clear lines and shapes I do my best to achieve a depth of field deep enough to encompass all the smoke in the frame. This is very much easier to do if the smoke is allowed to rise naturally. Wafting by hand has to be done gently to create turbulence without sending the smoke off at an angle from the vertical. Blowing is an alternative method, but like wafting you have to be quite near to the subject. When standing further away I have found a can of compressed air a good way to disturb the smoke. Shoot a jet off to the side or below the smoke and wait for the air disturbance to hit the plume. Recently I have been experimenting with items placed in the smoke column to interfere with the natural flow, upturned spoons I found the best.
As the smoke is constantly moving a fast shutter speed is required to freeze the smoke if sharpness is the desired aim. To achieve a decent depth of field and a reasonably fast shutter speed requires a good amount of light. I work in a converted attic room with only enough ambient light to save me from tripping over something and plummeting through the loft hatch.
For all practical purposes the light used to expose the image comes from one studio flash unit fitted with a snoot and placed at the side or behind the smoke. I realise that not everyone has one of these units, but an off camera flash gun fitted with or placed beside a baffle to protect the background from direct light works just as well.
The exposure or flash setting is adjusted to give just enough light for the brightest part of the smoke to be almost white. Over exposure will lose some detail and will also cause the inverted image to show a lot of black in the smoke, and that does not look natural. Under exposure will make it difficult to see the difference between the smoke and the background.
I use Photoshop for most of my editing; I hope my descriptions translate understandably into your tool of choice.
In post processing the first job is to crop the picture to a pleasing composition. This is the stage where 90 something % get trashed. Then I use levels or curves or both to achieve a true black in the background whilst trying not to lose any detail in the smoke. There will be dust, and there may be stray wisps of smoke, these are removed from the background, generally I use a black paintbrush, sometimes a clone tool. Where the dust or distracting wisps are near on in the smoke careful cloning at 100% magnification or more is required.
At this point I make the decision between black or white background by using the invert tool to flip back and forth between the two. I don’t know how I come to a decision; it’s whichever seems most appropriate.
I mostly use the Hue/Saturation tool to adjust the colour. For a single colour the adjustment can be applied to the whole image as white and black are unaffected by this type of colour change. Multiple colours are applied in the same way on loosely selected parts of the smoke.
I hope this is of some help." - JoshuaH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5How to do an effect like this in Photoshop:
http://www.tutorialguide.net/smoke_effect_tutorial.html - DAVIBE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2the 2nd , 6th , 13th, 15th, 22nd, 31,
they all look a little like ps3 background - mrkamil, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3hmm, colored smoke?
shameless plug, but whatevs, some people liked it.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/359938675_d672e5c078.jpg - DanielKongos, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Look at me! Look at me! Actually the smoke pics from sensitivelight are the ones that inspired me to do smoke photography. So mine are somewhat related. Also check out the rest of my pics. http://www.danielkongos.com
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/93/232568611_f11dcdea9c_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/232568636_2217a90181_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/84/232568597_5dbc97c29f_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/232568584_8424b48ccc_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/159143733_21892742b0_o.jpg- redneckblues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You've got some good stuff there!
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/93/232568611_f11dcdea9c_o.jpg
- redneckblues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You've got some good stuff there!
- Javlington, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Picture 10 somehow reminds me of the Final Fantasy series...
- parkermauney, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1it's not as good as my smoke wp's!!!11!!1! omg lol wtf lmao ftw
http://z9.invisionfree.com/chicnstu/index.php?showtopic=15 - mrmatchgame, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2New wallpaper
- CaptShmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i keep seeing naked bodies hidden in there...
- terra42, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1these are awesome. very very cool.
- oldestree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great photos, however I couldn't help but wonder when those hip iPod dancers were going to appear.
- TheProfessional, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is really cool, but this isn't a 'blog'. It is a photo gallery.
- Brainwave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the photographer was stoned photographing his pot smoke, then edited it the way he saw it.
- Marijuana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Amen.
- truegodofwar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1all this smoke porn is getting my cigar all puffed up
- haaaaey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1when i tried this i used pretty much the same technique as him but to color it i used the blending options and put layers of gradients on top of the smoke to color it. if you are into photography or photoshop i would recommend this technique. it's pretty fun :)
- mobster86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0also check here http://www.flickr.com/photos/76442934@N00/
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