Photography Tips

Have you run out of objects to photograph? Or do you simply

need something a bit different in front of your camera?

If this is true for you, why not try your photographing skills using

the smoke of an incense stick as your new abstract object.

All you need for this photo exercise is:

• A black background, anything big black will do. A towel, a

piece of paper or a sheet, the bigger background you’ve got the

easier it will be for you to find the best angles when

photographing.

• A desk lamp.

• An incense stick to produce the smoke.

• An incense stick holder.

Start with setting up your own “incense stick studio” so that the

background is located approximately two to three meters away

from the stick and make sure the lamp is not too close to the

stick because then you’ll end up with an endless amount of

photos portraying a desk lamp instead of just beautiful looking

smoke. Try to position the lamp as close to the stick as possible

without ruining your shots.

Time to start shooting… Use your pop up flash in your photos and a shutter speed fast enough to avoid blur but slow enough to be able to catch the flash light. 1/125 should work fine.

Have Fun and don’t be afraid of playing and experiment by yourself to get different effects

Problems that might occur:

If your results consists of a bunch of photos where the smoke is blurry despite the fact that you’ve been using a shutter speed fast enough. The reason might be that the camera wasn’t able to focus properly. This can be avoided by focusing on the tip of the incense and then switch the camera setting to Manual Focus.

Now it’s just to continue photographing. Just remember not to change the distance between the camera and the smoke because this will change the focus again.

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