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Using Smoke Bombs In Portraits For A Strong Effect

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Here is a technique I did not think I will ever be covering on the blog, using smoke bombs. In fact I did not even know that there is such a thing as smoke bombs until I stumbled on the photography of Jovana Rikalo.

Serbian photographer Jovana Rikalo uses smoke bombs to create some unexpected effects in her portraits. You see, some photographers like control in their photos, but Jovana prefers the random effect she gets from the way the smoke moves in the air.

I Asked Jovana about the hazards of using this technique and she says that she only shoots outside where the smoke quickly disperses.

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Creating Realistic Looking Clouds With A Fog Machine And Water

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A few years back, we shared this tutorial on how to make some DIY clouds to use as props in your photos. It’s still a great tutorial, and certainly a much longer lasting way to make clouds than the method we’re about to show you, so remember to check it out when we’re done over here. But, first, discover the work of Berndnaut Smilde, a dutch artist who has truly perfected the science of DIY cloud making.

As the image above suggests, Smilde’s clouds are quite realistic and are made using a fog machine, water, and ingenuity. You’ve probably figured out by now these clouds are also very temporary, often only lingering just long enough to make a photo before they drift away.[Read More…]

If You Want To Make Things Hard, Combine 4 Mirrors, Ground Fog And A Light Blaster To Create An Image

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There are these moments I have, lying in bed, closing my eyes and there it is: that idea that won’t let me sleep. Most of the time the idea get stranger and stranger as time goes by, because instead of being asleep, which is what I probably should do, I get inspired.

So I wake up and there it is: The telephone call, asking if you want to buy four mirrors. A few moments later I am standing with my first cup of coffee in my kitchen to realize what just happened:

  • I decided to build a ground fog machine
  • I just bought four giant mirrors
  • There should be some strange light, probably Light Blasting some structures somewhere…

I didn’t sleep very well the next night either, because I started testing my DIY-ground-fogger.

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How To Add Steam To Food Photography (Using Photoshop)

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Last week I did an article on how to capture steam in food photography right in camera. You can’t always have hot boiling water in every shoot or have really hot food (or frankly, sometimes it is just easier to do in post), yet there are times when you need to have steam. This is when you’ll add the steam in post production. Here is a step by step tutorial on how to add steam in photoshop.

Below, you will find two photoshop techniques for adding steam in photoshop.

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Controllable Smoke Makes a Huge Cleaning Tab

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A few days ago, Benjamin Von Wong (flickr) posted a photograph called rejection to his photostream. It was quite an extra ordinary piece of work in my mind.

There was a small bit of info in the captions that caught my eyes: “The Behind the Scenes is actually ready… Eva is just waiting for me to finish up the edits”

I guess Eva is done waiting, because f-stoppers just posted the very cool behind the scenes on this one. [Read More…]

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