Smoke and light

I'm posting here since I didn't find another section dedicated.

One step closer to where I want to be. Now I need to find out how to get "sharp" smoke.

Very cool. I've wanted to experiment with smoke. Maybe that winter has set in I'll have a chance.

Nice pictures! keep working on focus a bit!

Thanks.

Focus is something I need to sleep over. It's pretty hard getting the smoke in focus when you're shooting at f/1.8. I focus the lens on a distance but the smoke doesn't really do what I want. If I close down, I lose too much shutter. This is even too slow to shoot it well. Maybe I have to up the ISO some more and see if I can conquer the noise.

How are you lighting the smoke?

Led down below. That's the only light-source I use. Maybe next time I abandon the darkness idea and see what a black backdrop and environment light does.

I still need to fine-tune a lot but we're getting the hang of it. Once I get them as I want, I can start working at complexity.

what you need is a flash!
That way you can "freeze" the smoke and use smaller apertures so you can have a larger depth of field so all the smoke will be sharp.

Also, take a look at this website:
Smoke Photography Tips ? PictureCorrect

Keep on trying. The current pictures are pretty good allready

PatrickDeBie said:

what you need is a flash!
That way you can "freeze" the smoke and use smaller apertures so you can have a larger depth of field so all the smoke will be sharp.

Click to expand...

I prefer to not use flash. I could say I am a purist that finds flash a too intrusive technique that defeats the purpose of capturing light but truth is, it simply annoys me.

I think I'll get my 200mm out next time. That way I can get more into focus without losing my background. That might solve some DOF issues too.

But with a flash you can use a faster shutter speed at a smaller aperture and lower ISO level. That way you get sharper smoke, less noise and a far more controllable environment.

PatrickDeBie said:

But with a flash you can use a faster shutter speed at a smaller aperture and lower ISO level. That way you get sharper smoke, less noise and a far more controllable environment.

Click to expand...

Easier isn't always the better approach. I like the path of most resistance because it forces me to be inventive in order to conquer the limitations.

You say you want "sharper" smoke.
That's only possible with faster shutter speeds or more light. You're allready shooting at f/3.5, ISO 640.
With a larger aperture, you'll get a smaller DOF and the smoke will be out of focus. With a higher ISO you'll introduce more noise into the pictures. Also not an option.

So therefor, the easier approach (using a flash) IS the better approach in this situation. Why take the difficult path when you can make your life a lot easier and focus more on difficult smoke "patterns"?

Not saying that you shouldn't challenge yourself, I encourage you to do so, but in this situation there is no solution other than raising the ISO or using a larger aperture, which both have a negative impact on the end result. So therefor you should use a flash.

Impossible is only acceptable after trying all possible.

I can grab the flash and shoot sharp smoke, that's the easy method I know but I prefer to explore the other avenues first. Stuff like this is the fastest way to learn what this cam can and can't do. It also forces me to push it into the reds and see what I can get out. I did the same with the previous and I learned quite well what I can do and how much more I can do if using this or that.

I'm not saying the methods you find everywhere are bad but the problem with those tutorials and pre-chewed techniques is that while they deliver what you want, they don't deliver more. When experimenting, more often than not the shots or approaches turn out to be crap but the occasions they do not, a lot of new possibilities are added.

So yes I could use a flash and do what is done a zillion times. Or I could not and fail. Or if I'm lucky I stumble upon something that's only done a few times.

Like I said before I'm not saying that you shouldn't challenge yourself.
I encourage you to do so and I do it myself also at some times. But a photo is still just a combination of exposure time (shutter speed), amount of light (aperture) and light sensitivity (ISO). These three work in a triangle and to get the right exposure you have to deal with these three items. There is nothing you can change about that. And you can experiment all you want, if you want a certain result there are some "rules" for some situations.

In this case, smoke photography, is one of these rules that you have to use a fast shutter speed with lots of light. The shutter speed "part of the rule" is fixed. A too long shutter speed causes movement in the smoke, so shutter speed should be fast! The next thing is the amount of light or the light sensitivity.

You can try to catch lots of light on your sensor by using a big aperture (smaller f-number), but that also causes a smaller depth of field. At f/1.8 with your 35mm lens the total amount of depth of field is 0.15cm (= 0.00492125984 feet (1⁄16 inch)) (calculated with: Online Depth of Field Calculator). 0.15cm is far not enough to get the smoke sharp. I see you're using a D750, which is a FX camera. FX camera's even have a smaller DOF.

So the next thing is raising the ISO. At ISO 640 the noise should still be reasonable, but at higher ISO's the noise will be more and more present. You don't want that. Definitely not with smoke pictures, because you want that pictures to be as clean as possible.

So you have 2 problems. You can't open up the aperture because of depth of field and you can't raise the ISO because of noise.

Solution? Using a flash!
With the flash you can use a very fast shutter speed, close down the aperture to create more depth of field to get all the smoke inside the sharp area and lower the ISO to suppress noise. This kind of picture should be taken with ISO 100/200.

Finally:
Challenging yourself isn't a bad thing. Without challenging yourself you'll never meet your own or your camera's boundaries. But be reasonable and know the limits. And with this experiment the limits are what I've written down.

You forget this is the digital age. Rules can be broken.



Check the ISO.
Not there yet but closing in.

Check the f/ too.

I'm a very, very stubborn guy and the more they tell me I can't do that, the more I think; "Yes we can!".

Nice shots so far.
Experimenting is definitely the way to learn.
I do not understand your aversion to flash though. It is not cheating, or easier.
It is simply the right tool for the job. Plain and simple, some shots require the amount of light that flash provides.
Flash can be used non intrusively very easily.
While everyone has reasons for the methods they use.
You say you are already using led light (off camera light source).
Your resistance of flash sound like fear of the unknown.
Looking forward to seeing your experiment carry out.
But without using flash. I can not see where a telephoto lens will help in any way.

To your point.
With digital photography.
Just boost your ISO and use noise reduction is post.
But that defeats the purpose of getting SHARP images.

Not to be a jerk, but I still think the smoke is out of focus.