Smoke Demon

Shot some more images in the studio today and experimented with random smoke patterns. After Wednesday's "Ignition" Blip, I thought it would be cool to see what I could come up with photographing billowing smoke backlit against a black backdrop.

The recipe is mostly the same except I used a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L wide angle lens to increase my chances of capturing some cool patterns. The difficulty was producing the smoke itself. Ideally, I wanted the flame to extinguish itself in a windless environment so that the smoke would curl up naturally. Very difficult to do... Mostly it would burn out with nary a wisp, and if I blew it out, my breath would dissipate the smoke too much. I finally resorted to gently smothering the candle by covering it wit a jar and then gently lifting it up releasing the smoke. With the wooden matches, I wet the match stick up to just below the match head where it would then extinguish prematurely releasing a plume of smoke into the frame.

Again, a lot of trial and error, but I got some cool results.