Photographing Smoke: Wisps and Backlighting

Photographing smoke produces almost abstract images, somewhere between sculpture and drawing — and it’s one of the most accessible techniques in this series : an incense stick, a black background and a single light source are enough to get started.

A black background, an absolute requirement

Smoke is translucent and stands out very poorly against a light or busy background — an entirely black background (fabric, card, or simply a room plunged into darkness behind the subject) remains essential for it to stand out clearly with nothing to distract from it.

Side lighting, never from the front

Lighting smoke from the front flattens it completely — a lamp or flash placed to the side, or even slightly behind it, brings out each wisp through the light passing through it rather than a simple surface reflection. A handheld, adjustable torch lets you fine-tune the angle in real time until you find the right lighting.

The right smoke source

An incense stick, extinguished just after being lit, or a blown-out match, produces fine, steady smoke that’s far more photogenic than a fire still burning. Working in a room with absolutely no draught (closed windows, no fan) keeps the smoke from dispersing too quickly before you’ve had a chance to compose the shot.

Freezing the wisps with a fast enough shutter speed

A shutter speed around 1/200 s generally freezes the smoke’s movement without blurring it — combined with an aperture closed down enough to keep all the wisps sharp. In post-processing, inverting the tones (the white smoke on a black background becomes dark on white) or adding colour remains a simple way to take this type of image further.