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09/09/2004 05:34:42 AM · #1 |
I have been thinking and looking around for different things to fit the current member challenges (smoke and mirrors). I have some ideas, but they all seem to be either boringly common or dependent upon a lucky waft of air fashioning the smoke into a pleasing arrangement.
So, with this in mind, I am starting this thread. What interesting ways do you know of to make smoke, cigars/cigarettes and incense are the most obvious, but surely there are others. And while we are at it, what interesting things do you know how to do with smoke?
I'll get the smoke flowing with a trio of interesting things to do with smoke.
1) Smoke Bubbles: Blow a soap bubble, then take a puff from a cigarette/cigar, carefully stick a staw into the bubble and then blow the smoke into the bubble. Careful arrangement of the smoke-filled bubbles can make interesting arrangements -- and even a square bubble.
2) Zen Fluid Dynamics: Sit in a sunbeam in a dimly-lit room. Light a stick of incense, hold it vertically, then move it upwards and stop suddenly, with a jerk. A perfect smoke-ring will be launched from the burning tip. Move the incense upwards, then suddenly jerk downwards, then repeat. You can launch fast smoke-rings through the center of slow ones, create side-by side rows, etc. In a draft-free room they persist for ages, and soon the air will be full of huge grey thin circles. Contemplate the silent Chaos.
3) Make 'smoke' with your mouth: Compress the air in your mouth, then let off the pressure, then let the air out slowly. You'll see fog!
Detailed version: Face a light source such as a bare light bulb. Tightly close you lips. Fill your cheeks with air partially, breathe normally through your nose, then fiercely tense your cheeks and lips while blowing to compress the air inside. (It helps if you push fingers on your lips to keep air from spurting out.) Now relax your cheeks, part your lips, and spit the air out very slowly. (Don't breathe out, instead spit the air out with cheeks and tongue.) Smoke! Fog comes out of your mouth. It's just like the fog in the neck of a freshly opened bottle of cola. This works great in the dark with a flashlight.
This is done with the intention of upping the ante of the challenge, so what tricks to you know that could be used as building blocks for an aesthetic composition that is really smoking.
David
The first above is from an entertainer I watched as a child, the last two are stolen verbatim from 'Science Hobbyist' -- I don't know if they originated them or not, so all credit goes to their originator(s).
/edit: formatting
Message edited by author 2004-09-09 05:35:30.
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09/09/2004 06:15:08 AM · #2 |
Originally posted by Britannica:
Face a light source such as a bare light bulb. Tightly close you lips. Fill your cheeks with air partially, breathe normally through your nose, then fiercely tense your cheeks and lips while blowing to compress the air inside. (It helps if you push fingers on your lips to keep air from spurting out.) Now relax your cheeks, part your lips, and spit the air out very slowly. (Don't breathe out, instead spit the air out with cheeks and tongue.) Smoke! Fog comes out of your mouth. It's just like the fog in the neck of a freshly opened bottle of cola. This works great in the dark with a flashlight. |
I've attempted this for 5 minutes unsuccessfully.. Now I have a headache and swollen cheeks :-/
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09/09/2004 06:15:13 AM · #3 |
Thanks for this.. It's kind of jump-started my brain a little bit.
I'm still uncertain if I want to enter the smoke challenge (I have physical issues with real smoke), but reading something like this sure can get the creative juices flowing.
We'll have to see if anything strikes me :)
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09/09/2004 07:42:03 AM · #4 |
why don't you go out and take a photo instead of telling people what to take a photo of?
it's really rude.
so when someone takes a photo they thought was unique,
you already posted this thread.
thanks.
why don't you just post the photo your gonna submit while your at it?
Message edited by author 2004-09-09 07:42:18.
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09/09/2004 08:07:17 AM · #5 |
I have to agree with Eric somewhat on this point, I had an idea involving incense sticks which I certainly will not use now becuase of this thread.
Maybe there is a point that many would have ended up doing the same thing, but I would not have know that till after I had entered my pic, and in preperation I would have put my heart into creating somthing that I thought was going to be special.
I suppose that I can take this thread as a warning, but unless I can think of something else (and I'm pretty sure that I will - I don't give up that easy) then it would be one less participant.
I DO appreciate a little discussion beforehand, mainly to clarify the boundaries of the challenge, but detailing the ideas and methods is a little out of order
Darren
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09/09/2004 08:08:22 AM · #6 |
Thank you David.
I appreciate the research you did for us. And the links you provided. Very helpful. |
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09/09/2004 01:53:45 PM · #7 |
@Eric & Darren: I described techniques, not images. A list of techniques that can be done will only serve to emphasis the creativeness of the entries. Note that the creativeness of a photograph is in the composition, point of view, etc. -- not in the technique used to create what is being photographed. This is on the same level of importance to the creation of a photo as telling someone that putting a light-source behind an object helps to define the borders and if stopped down creates a silhouette.
This simply removes some of the chance from the challenge; the chance of what you have been exposed to. Any other techniques to share?
David
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09/09/2004 02:01:59 PM · #8 |
I've found that burning things is a good way to create smoke ;)
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09/09/2004 02:04:01 PM · #9 |
yeah...Likw wow, It's easy to have ideas....but to actualy go ahead with them is what it's all about...
as for techniques...I don't see what technique your talking about...your giving photographic suggestions. think about it, and even if it was "techniques"....don't you feel that #1 someone should have asked? and #2, if some people try hard to make it whithout "help"...why would others deserve it?
Message edited by author 2004-09-09 14:05:58.
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09/09/2004 02:46:38 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by Bran-O-Rama:
Originally posted by Britannica:
Face a light source such as a bare light bulb. Tightly close you lips. Fill your cheeks with air partially, breathe normally through your nose, then fiercely tense your cheeks and lips while blowing to compress the air inside. (It helps if you push fingers on your lips to keep air from spurting out.) Now relax your cheeks, part your lips, and spit the air out very slowly. (Don't breathe out, instead spit the air out with cheeks and tongue.) Smoke! Fog comes out of your mouth. It's just like the fog in the neck of a freshly opened bottle of cola. This works great in the dark with a flashlight. |
I've attempted this for 5 minutes unsuccessfully.. Now I have a headache and swollen cheeks :-/ |
worked for me on the first try, pretty cool
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09/09/2004 05:18:40 PM · #11 |
Here's one for the smoke, but I think voters will be looking for real smoke.
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09/09/2004 05:37:08 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by Britannica:
@Eric & Darren: I described techniques, not images. A list of techniques that can be done will only serve to emphasis the creativeness of the entries. Note that the creativeness of a photograph is in the composition, point of view, etc. -- not in the technique used to create what is being photographed. This is on the same level of importance to the creation of a photo as telling someone that putting a light-source behind an object helps to define the borders and if stopped down creates a silhouette.
This simply removes some of the chance from the challenge; the chance of what you have been exposed to. Any other techniques to share?
David |
Yeah,
heres a technique...
"challenge" yourself to think of an original Idea, and then "challenge" yourself to figure out how to shoot it. After that, share with the community how you did it.
Sounds pretty reasonable to me.
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09/09/2004 06:27:08 PM · #13 |
oh no, another one of these arguments? Can't we all argue about something else for once?
Here's a topic: PC's are way better than Mac's
Things to argue about: Image editing on both, Video, Office programs, Power consumption, Pricing, Compatability...
ok GO!
ps: I don't see anything wrong with a thread like this, leave him alone. :-/ |
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09/10/2004 02:44:06 AM · #14 |
LOL!! This thread has become even more fun than I had hoped. :) Too bad it is no where near as useful as I had hoped. :(
What I listed, as I thought I stated quite clearly, are techniques -- not photography techniques; techniques for working with smoke. That is all they are. They are on the same level of technology, as far as I am concerned, as knowing a compass is used to make perfectly round circles. They are used to accomplish a specific task -- and that task is not to make a picture. The task they do creates something, if you feel that something has a useful place in a photographic composition -- here you go, here is one way to accomplish it. They do not create compositions, nor do they even suggest compositions -- although they have apparently jumpstarted a least a couple of imaginations.
If your submission is so completely dependent upon knowing a technique of smoke manipulation that no one else knows; what were you wanting voted upon, your composition or the technique. Let's take the smoke bubbles I mentioned seeing used in an act as a child. Blow a bubble and stick some smoke in it -- could stop there and take a picture of it. The simplicity of the shot could be done well and make a great shot -- but I think I would find a way to mess it up. A few more bubbles, some with smoke and some without, all stuck together -- now that is getting a bit more interesting, but I would probably just make it look cluttered. But that doesn't matter, it is just a soap bubble with smoke in it -- it is what is done with it during the taking of the photo that matters. That entertainer (I really wish I knew his name so I could give him credit) didn't even stop there, he blow lots of bubbles, stuck them all together -- some with smoke, some without -- until they were in a mass about a foot across (about a third of a meter for those living elsewhere) and then gave it a slight jerk so they all fell into place -- and it became a carousel. A puff of air and the carousel went round and round. It is just smoke in a soap bubble. But he made it into an artform all its own. Was it the technique that made it so incredible? No, it was the creativity in which he used the one simple technique of manipulating smoke by putting it into a soap bubble.
You may learn a bit about smoke bubbles by relying on the uniqueness of an unknown technique to sell the image, but you will learn so much more by taking that simple technique, applying a bit of creativity to the photographing of it to make a unigue photo of a non-unique subject.
I don't expect everyone to go out and blow smoke into bubbles, but I received a PM from an individual who appeared to be quite upset that I had 'taken away' his idea and made it public. That for some reason, photographing soap bubbles was not to be done because I mentioned it in this thread. Image for a momenthow many fewer images there would be on DPC if only unknown subjects could be photographed. Some of you would appreciate not seeing the cats and flowers and bugs, but there would certainly be a lot fewer phtotos around here.
It is not what you photograph, but how you photograph it that matters.
As for what I will be taking a picture of, well it won't be the above -- but not because they wouldn't make good pictures. First I don't smoke, and I am not about to start just for a challenge entry; and I don't like the smell of incense, so I don't want the stench in my home for the next few weeks either. So I am looking for something that can be used outside -- will keep the wife happier that way. :p She wouldn't like something burning in the house anyway. She suggested dry-ice, but I am still mulling that one over.
BTW: PC vs Mac arguements are boring. Mac zealots always say macs are so much better, and the pc users make them happy for a while by mock arguing with them. But eventually they bring out the whole market share thing and the macsters start shifting from one foot to another; finally dragging themselves into a little tiny corner with a couple of apps written expressly for the mac and say the arguement may continue as long as it stays in that corner. The PC users then continue on with the work they were doing before the interruption. :)
Yes sir, quite the amusing thread.
David
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09/10/2004 12:21:52 PM · #15 |
Keybosh, your right. There's nothing wrong with this thread. (but my mac is better than your pc!) hehe
Sorry David for jumping all over your back (not literally folks)
I just thought maybe someone else could have thought about the bubble trick, then maybe felt like they weren't coming up with an original idea after reading what you wrote. (like me maybe?)
even colda is changing his idea about the incense.
I totally respect yout posts and enjoy reading what you have to say. (the unabridged brittanica)
But you kinda not only discussed techniques, but also ideas. Maybe explaining how to capture the smoke using a flash or a bright light would have been a better discussion.
I didn't try to do the "creat smoke with your mouth" trick but I've heard it's possible when it's cold :-O
Anyways,
That's just my 2 pennies,
I do enjoy these threads!!!
Peace,
go poke some smot.
E
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