Posts from — March 2008

“The Independent Traveller magazine is a quarterly travel and photography magazine for the global citizen with an Asian perspective. Our contributors scoured the hidden pockets of the world for fascinating stories and scenery that are one of a kind. Through vivid and colourful experiences in every issue, the world is being brought closer to our readers.”

I have contributed an article on my independent travel to Myanmar for the inaugural issue of this magazine. They have chosen my photo of this little Myanmarese girl as the cover.

Smoke photography is interesting. There are 2 parts to it :

1. taking the smoke photos
2. the post processing of the photos

Taking the smoke photos

The keys to a good smoke photo are

• gray smoke (chinese joss sticks are the best source of gray smoke based on my own experiences)
• black background
• side lighting - you need to light the smoke not the background
• fast shutter speed of 1/250sec or faster

Post processing of the photos

Once the photos are taken, you will need to post process them. make sure you get the background to be completely black by using the Level tool of Photoshop. Then invert the image so that now the black background is now white.

To add color the smoke, use the Hue and Saturation tool.

Enjoy shooting!