Lady shapes with smoke

Been playing with smoke again, so who can see a lady in the smoke here ?
Matt, I had a go with the settings you suggested me yesterday, and you were spot on right, the flash ends up taking too long to recycle, and unfortunately anything less than 1/1 power of the flash is not enough.
So much so that I need one extra to put on the opposite side. The reflector I put is not enough to illuminate.
But the shutter speed was fantastic, 180 was more than enough. It even allowed me to bump up the stop down the aperture at 16 so that I could capture enough of the area.

So this means I guess I am in the market for a second flash. Anyone wants to get rid of one please? Do let me know as I am interested. Something cheap but that would work wirelessly so that I can link it with my sigma also.




Thank you

I can see them, the 2nd one is a little roughly edited at the top though. Try using a softer brush so as not to leave a hard edge.

Thanks Bob
Editing is still a huge task for me , I saw that one and didnt know how to end up smoothening it.
I will use a softer brush in my next ones and hopefully I will start getting the hang of it.
Thanks for the tip

Same problem like the previous one, struggling with the brush.
I will eventually get it, just need to practise a lot.
Any suggestions about the colours for this one please?

Amin,
Looking good
Some hints: You don't need expensive P-TTL flashguns for this work
Get yourself a small "dumb" flash (like the AF160 which should be around £10) to put on the hotshoe of the camera - this becomes your controller. Then, put the Sigma in "dumb" flash mode (if it has it) so it slaves off the AF160. Then, get a really cheap flash (but powerful) and a "slave cube" or similar.

Alternatively, find yourself a local camera shop and invest in PC cords. Second hand shops often have these things in their "bargain bucket". The K20D has a PC socket on the side - you can wire up long leads to as many flash guns as you need. And all flashguns can be as dumb as they come (Make sure they have an "M" mode, and preferably a power slide to select 1/1, 1/2 etc).

Photoshop brush - keyboard hint: "[" and "]" will vary the SIZE of the brush. "{" and "}" (ie shift-"[" and shift-"]") will vary the softness of the brush. Make sure you have brush selected, and not pencil - because the pencil is always hard

Hope that helps!
Matt

Matt you rock , I am starting to look at you as my mentor for my smoke work. I am enjoying this truly so much that I want to dwell a bit further. I do truly feel that I can improve a huge amount, you know that feeling that it is there and I am getting there in leaps and bounds so it just gives me so much thrill. I am almost jumping like a big kid here.

Let me read again carefully what you wrote about the flash and the photoshop tips. I want to understand fully, and the magic words there were "no need to spend a lot of money" ha

Matt, let me see if I got this right, and I do apologise for me being slow on picking this, still extremely raw in terms of flash and I am only now starting to get over my phobia of it thanks to your guide .

So if I understand correctly, I buy one or two flashes, the cheap ones that would have M mode and preferably the power selection ability in them. Then the power cord ... I see the ability in the K20 to use the PC type pin in there, so if I get a long cable, do these cheap flashes then give me the ability to wire them up with the camera? is that it? And how do I use my sigma with the combination? Because it doesn't have any cable input.
Oh so many questions, I am sorry to be bugging so much, shoot me if you get frustrated, but I can be pretty slow at times until I start getting the idea of things

Been applying the tips on PP and I am totallyl chuffed. I felt I had much more control on this one, I am almost jumping up and down my chair, . Want your opinions on this one as I used the soft brush now, and managed to get to grips with some more colouring.
Been cooking some more ideas about how to transform the smoke, I like the challenge of really shaping it as I snap it rather than dwelling on just postprocessing.

On this one I didn't have to do much except remove just one edge on the side and cropping it, oh and turning it on to its side.

Let's hear what you have to say please, comments highly sought.

thanks

Amin

Amin,
Yes, that's pretty much it. You can trigger the Sigma using a PC-to-flash-shoe adapter You mount the Sigma on it and plug in the PC cord. PC cords are just two-core cables that get shorted together when you want the flash to go off. There are various PC gubbins that allow you to connect multiple units together. Check out 7dayshop... but as I said, you're better off rootling around some second hand shops

Your images are looking good! Watch out for the burnt highlights - they detract a little from the 2nd image, IMHO.

Matt

to help out with "Brush" problem....

look in your image editor for a filter called "Liquify".
instead of painting over or erasing , try manipulating with Liquify.

I am getting addicted to this. Flying straight into PP and checking that out, will try on another of the smoke images.
Thank you so much

well if it feeds your addictions....ever hear the phrase "Smoke and Mirrors"?
now there in lies a whole new level OCD photography Fun.
Don't blame your divorce on me.

With this taking up all your camera time, you've no need for the DA* 300mm. I'll swap you a bag of smoke for it.