About the Image(s)

As the hot weather drives me to the basement, I have revived an interest in smoke photography. Incense sticks are used as the smoke source. Two LED studio video lights, GVM SD200D and Chinese no-name 135W. provide side lighting. Black foamcore and corrugated cardboard are used for background and for side baffles to reduce air cross currents. Incense smoke moves rapidly necessitating hundreds of images to find ones that provide interesting abstracts. "The Gift" is a composite of two. From the originals, you can see that considerable exposure correction, cropping, and cleanup of extraneous smoke is necessary. Nothing was added to the original images. It is just smoke with wonderful soft translucency and sinuous motion. Nikon Z7 with Nikkor Z 50 mm f/1.8 lens. Exposures were ISO 1600, f/8 for depth of field, and 1/250 second to stop motion. A plus is the great aroma now pervading the basement.