Photographing Smoke for the first time. #photog #technics

Life- It's not all smoke and mirrors

So, it was night.  Dark and foreboding.  I have never attempted photographing smoke, strictly as smoke, but I did believe it would be best if I photographed it in the dark and used a light source to highlight it to bring out the variances found in the transparency and drift that is produced.   Because of the low light I also knew that I would need my tripod, and to use a timer or a remote shutter to help reduce camera shake.  So I gathered everything that I needed:

One regular flashlight , two of the energizer light on demand sticks (I can’t find the exact type of light this is but it is a very white light-I’m thinking it is halogen,)  one votive candle, one long wooden match stick, my Canon 5D Mark II and my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on my tripod.    I cleared the table and set it against a plain wall so there was no background noise.

It Must Be Angel's Wings

I put my camera on my tripod and on either side of the votive candle I put one of the light sticks and kept the third light in my hand lower than the table and pointing upward toward the ceiling /smoke.  “Was this going to work?” I wondered.  It was time to light the candle and I tried to focus; this part was not very easy actually.   The smoke moves so fast and is so transparent.  So I tried to focus midway to my set- up to keep the smoke in focus.  I concentrated on the wick first in manual focus and it seemed to work fairly well, although my smoke source was the wooden match, not the candle.  The aperture chosen by the camera was 2.8, which is always fine by me, so I stayed with shutter priority and a 0.5-.6 second shutter seemed to work the best to catch the smoke with all its twists and turns before it dissipated.  I set my camera to the 10 second timer and did bracketing exposure of -1/3 to +1/3 (on the timer it allowed for three quick shots making catching the smoke in three different forms much easier.)  

Petals of Smoke

The candle was lit, bringing in a quiet light; flashlights in position and turned on and I touched the long wooden match to the fire to get it burning, then dropped it lower than the candle so the candlelight would also be a light source.  I would press the shutter then point the third light upward,  and with practice blew out the flame of the match at just the right moment for the shutter to click and catch the smoke.   This took practice and I missed as often as I hit it just right at the beginning, it got better the more I practiced. Shooting straight on to the rising column of smoke also proved to be the best way to catch the smoke, although I did try to shoot it upward from below and it wasn’t very successful.  You can begin to swirl the match or do other things with it to produce various effects with the smoke.  It became great fun when it all came together and started to work. 

 

I found pre-planning this shoot was as important as actually shooting the smoke.  Once you understand all the things that come into play, it becomes much easier, not only for planning but for shooting.  It is worth the experience in every way and I just may find reasons to shoot it again!

As always, for me though, it is about how the photograph makes you feel.  When the colors are good, especially subtle color variances, it is even better.  So which ones touch your soul?  And how do they make you feel?

 

11 from '11

I have many photographs that mean a lot to me because of places I have been or people whom I know but the eleven photographs that I have chosen are ones that evoke something inside of me, they have stirred up emotions or feelings; they represent an up or a down or a contemplative aspect for me and represent how I interact with my world and the special meaning that is derived from interacting with it.

Foreverland

Waiting for the Wind

The Definition of Beautiful Wishes

Translucent Happiness

Simply Pink

Reaching the Dream

Sakura Delight

Revealing All But the Secret Parts

Inner Beauty

Embracing the Fall

 Just Like Magic

I am looking forward to 2012 and raise my hopes for a more prosperous and forward looking year.  I am starting my year in a new part of the country and believe it will bring new inspiration along with its challenges.  My wish for you is a happy and prosperous year filled with clear vision and blessings.

Space how much are you giving your vision?

In the quest of trying to keep focused on your photography or art and what you want it to emanate; think about these photographs and let yourself feel…

Sydney, Australia

 

Sydney, Australia

What is the difference of the evocative mood or feeling you get from these two different perspectives created by moving the horizon line?

What about the distant versus the more close-up photograph? What is the difference in feeling they create within you?  How do they make you feel?  How does that fit with what you want to evoke in your work?

Sydney, Australia

Sydney, Australia

Consider the role that space may have in your photography.  Think positive and negative space, think dimensional space and what that means in creating your evocative images.  What I want to do is continue to provoke you to think consciously about how the photographs or drawings or paintings you create convey your own perceptions of your world and do they fulfill what you are trying to do in your work.  

Space is essential when considering composition.  What isn’t there is just as important as what is there.  There is both positive and negative space in any confined frame.    And how you handle “space” determines if what you are producing is more two-dimensional or three-dimensional in the perception of the viewer.

Perhaps the easiest aspect of space to grasp is that of positive and negative space.  It comes into play when you consider balance as well as composition.  Think about those illusions where you perhaps have two people face to face.  In one person’s view they see the positive space of two people while someone else reads the negative space and sees the goblet.  In portraiture generally the positive space would be the person in the photograph while the negative space is the rest of the photograph.  The amount of space you give to each will produce a different feel to the photograph.  

Wetherby Station, Australia

Kula Eco Park, Fiji

Consider the freedom the distant Opera House has with the larger negative space around it and how it makes you feel with the wide open space, then consider the confines of the photograph with it filling the frame.  The purposes and intent is very different in each case, so is the feeling it conveys.   Neither is right or wrong but it fully has to do with what you want to say and convey in your work, how you feel and what you want to project to others.

Overlapping, perspective, focus and blur, size, value or a hue change will all help someone perceive your work as having more dimensions.   In works with true dimension there is a foreground, middle ground and a background and they will all be treated differently and appear to have different qualities of the given illusions.

Auckland, New Zealand

An overlapping of objects creates the illusion of space and dimension particularly when the foreground object is brighter, clearer, has more detail and is larger.  This will create a foreground space that is unmistakable, alone the dimensional space only exists as a pattern but when overlapped or combined with objects in a middle ground slightly reduced in all of those aspects will help to create a more two-dimensional space, when combined with a background that is blurry, reduced in hue or color and indistinct will add a third dimension to your work.  Shadows or shading will also give the illusion of dimension to objects so be conscious of this.  To totally remove shadows say in portraiture creates a flatness that may not be exactly what you want to convey in your work unless of course that is your particular style.  Just as vice versa, if you increase the contrast in your photographs it helps to create greater dimension.  Although in photography if you do this you can create “halos” around objects and therefore create more of a pattern than a perception of depth.

Darling Harbour, Sydney, AU

Space might include pattern to help create a certain perspective or perception of your work.  Pattern or repeats can create an interesting photograph but will keep it very two dimensional in nature, more of a design element than artistic element unless some of the other aspects of three-dimensional space are included in your photograph.  Notice the marked difference in these two leaf photographs in terms of dimension of space.

Great Smoky Mtn National Park, TN, USA

Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC, USA

Morecambe, England, GB

The perception of space can also be achieved through size.  Those objects closer to you are larger while the ones that are at a greater depth will be smaller creating the illusion of perspective and space and dimension.

Lancaster, England, GB

There is also a linear perspective that will help to create a sense of three-dimensional space.  A good example of this is a path or road that seems to disappear in the distance and gets smaller as it recedes.  Buildings will also have this same linear perspective as will picnic tables!

Hue or value is also a tool to help create the depth you may seek in your work.  As colors recede they decrease in hue and become a bit more subdued in saturation of color.  Colors will appear brighter and more clear and as they recede into the middle and background spaces the intensity will also diminish.  It is a good realization to have because you can create that “pop” of color that can create drama in a photograph when this concept is adjusted.  If you are working strictly in black and white, value becomes your friend in the creation of depth and dimension.  Whites will draw your eye and blacks and grays will create the depth.  See my earlier post on value as an element of art here.

Kadena, Okinawa, Japan

Indianapolis, IN, USA

The combination of several of these tools to create a three-dimensional space can create what is called atmospheric space.  This is simply what we know to be true particularly in landscape work where the atmosphere in a photograph or drawing, where objects in the distance become blurred, less detailed, become bluish or gray in color or the shading of a hue to reduce color intensity creating atmospheric conditions and the illusion of greater three-dimensional space.

Dandridge, TN, USA

Christchurch, New Zealand

Christchurch, New Zealand

This week think about space in terms of your vision and intent.  How does it make you feel?  How can you use it to evoke a sense of your view of the world?  What way can it best be used to create your evocative images?

Shape-an element of art

We have explored line as an element of art and if you missed it look at last Monday’s blog post.  I hope you have all taken the time to look through your portfolio or your favorite photographs to see what kind of role line plays in them and if it is something you want to explore further to bring your vision into focus. As we continue to explore the five elements of art; the second one I want to explore today is that of shape.

Everything is made up of shapes; one just can’t get around shape!  (Well, actually there are round shapes-circles, cylinders…)  There are two dimensional shapes like circles, squares, triangles  and ovals that we all think of immediately, we can all easily draw these on a piece of paper.  Perhaps as a child you played with toys and manipulated shapes into particular matching spaces.   But there are also three dimensional shapes like cones, cylinders, spheres and cubes, shapes with volume and mass in which perspective and shading will bring about on a two-dimensional surface like paper. Shape is the "architecture" of a drawing, painting or photograph.  If you look and think shapes everything is made up of shapes, even a square is really two triangles!  Most objects we don’t think of so literally as purely made up as shapes, after all isn’t it just a face or a building or a landscape, isn’t it just a starfish?  Shape is not confined to being angular or abstract, but the elements are in everything; we just don’t always look at things and think, that’s a circle or square or a triangle.  But my largest purpose in exploring this early is to get you thinking about the shape of things and what those shapes convey, angular and sharp or harsh or are they fluid and circular or sensual?  If we begin to think shape we can begin to realize what role it plays in our work.  I want you to think about the human face for a moment, we all love people and a face has similar qualities in shape with some variations on that shape.  Some faces are more angular and some more oval.  Please consider this photograph.  I only chose a few prominent shapes in the photograph but I am certain you can find more within those shapes particularly within the face.  

Curious Uncertainty

 

Here also notice a simile of sorts where you have a rectangle, triangle, circle, skewed rectangle, and then finally a triangle.  If the eyes don’t “grab” your attention the placement of the oval in the photograph will.  Here is an example of a more angular and square face.

We can see where shape/s might be repeated; even though they are different objects the shapes contained in them may be the same---and don’t forget the “negative space!”  You can see how shape will come into play in the principle of balance.  Consider these photographs from nature and the shapes found within them.  Notice on the sunflower photograph called “Flaming” we have the idea of a circle, even though it is not fully visible contributing to the abstract feel of this photograph. 

And this architectural photograph of the Sydney Opera House where the triangular sail was its inspiration. 

 

I also want to direct you to a few photographs from my fellow photographer Amanda Stone.  In this particular photograph the elements of shape make this image wonderful to me; take note of the negative space involved in the snow angels on the driveway and the repetition of the triangle and how that makes it especially appealing.  Take special note of how the negative space triangles produce a simile of the other snow angels and is an angel all on its own!

Do you see a thread in your work for shape to be a predominant factor?  What do the shapes in your work convey to those who view it?  Does it evoke the kind of response you are trying to bring forward?  Shape does come into play in composition so it is definitely something for us to think about and consider; such in that you don't want this big old square or other shape floating in the middle of the photo, unless you want to do a Dali!  Now think about line and shape together and how they fit in your photography and your vision.  What is it that you are choosing to do in your work, is it conscious? Can it be?  If we contemplate some of these concepts before we go out to photograph things our photography will maintain our vision more fully as we consciously bring in or leave things out of the frame. 

Some masters to consider studying when it comes to shape playing a major part in their work, view the work of Cezanne, particularly his still life paintings and Chagall and his stained glass windows and Picasso or any cubist really.  They were all great shape artists.

Today’s album to consider and think about shapes is found here on Facebook and here on Flickr.