Stefan

From my experience if you increase the ISO to those numbers you are bound to have so many grains in the smoke that it ruins it.
Also the F stop so wide how can you get the focus on the wobbly smoke?
Naah, there is definitely much more to it than meets the eye.
I will have to do some more experiments to check this.

I even tried once using gels and the light decrease that I got just ruined the shots. You really need a lot of light, a fast shutter speed and very very low iso. That is the consensus from all that I have seen that produced some stunning images.

I will be putting my head down and carry some experiments and then will see

Craig, we are talking smoke images, not just light or toys colours

I also thought so Tel
But this guy is really adamant that he used this procedure, in fact he even put me down on one of the comments initially, a few months ago and told me that I should use his procedure. At that time he didn't even have any coloured smoke, except the couple old ones that you can see on his portfolio. Suddenly after a few months he comes up with these little beauties, but he is still adamant that he uses a projector with powerpoint and then makes the smoke in the middle link.
I might be very wrong but my experience is without powerful flash its extremely difficult to get any smoke images, even in a dark room.

He seems to have some that might have been with the projector as he says, but the ones that are too colourful I just can't get my head around to believing that they were projected colours.

I will have to try this to really be sure, but my impression is without powerful lighting such as flash (in fact I use two flashes and if I had more I would use more)

Can someone tell whether these images have had colour added during PP or not please? Or they colour through a different process?

Thanks

Stefan
I ran Ninja over it. But isolated the bee in the ninja so it would leave it out when reducing noise from the image. Then messed up a little with curves then a bit of highlight adjustments. Then ran the pen around the bee to select it and then sharpen as I didn't want to get the noise in the sorrounding image again.

Sometimes I go through a second time with Ninja again after sharpening the whole image, and on the second time I isolate the main parts of the image that I want to leave it sharpened.
So basically I run first time with Ninja over all the image, then after a few tweaks ending with sharpening the image, and then run Ninja again but this time isolating the parts to leave out.

Your image came out pretty nicely, how did you manage to control the noise?

Based on my limited experience and still being disastrous at PP this is the best I could come up with.
There is quite a lot of noise in my view in the image

PentaxBabe, as you can see you have got it nailed. Mike showed how to post process and it will be quite an improvement.

Upload the bigger version please, let's all see that bumblebee in full action

I might be wrong so please get a confirmation from the ones whose portfolio when I look at I go all and start banging my head on the walls and kicking all the pots and pans in the kitchen but seems like you just described literally all that there is to it. Obviously "SKILL" incorporates knowing how to get the settings appropriate for each situation, type of subject etc.

Seems like your accounting background is going to come very handy here , nothing will escape your grasp, and with insects you are bound to be pretty good.

Has that macro lens materialised already? Waiting to see some bubbles

I think in your place I definitely would prioritise in fiding someone with a K20D and assess the problem and make sure its definitely the camera.

Aiki,
Have to add that the 16-45mm also is a stunning portrait lens .
So you are spoilt for choice. But for a more indepth help in selecting for your precise needs I am sure the forum members here will cast some more light and might give you a better idea.

Here are a couple with the 16-45mm including mine that the friend above took. One of rarest ones where the photographer got to be snapped