If you’d like a warmer image, set your white balance to “shade”. Your white balance doesn’t matter if you’re shooting in RAW format, but for all intents and purposes you can keep it on auto. The higher the ISO, the more visible noise.
Your ISO should be set to 100, ensuring that you have the least amount of noise in your final image. Your shutter speed should be set to the sync speed of your flash – typically, this is around 1/200 or 1/250. Your aperture should be set around f/8 to ensure that all your smoke remains in focus. RAW will make it much easier to tweak exposure and white balance, although it does take up more memory. If you don’t plan on editing the images in post, feel free to shoot in JPEG.
Excessive airflow will disturb the smoke.
Adjust the power of the external flash to 1/16 to start out with. Position your external flash opposite the lamp so that it is also pointed directly at the tip of the incense stick.As you’ll see later, the light from the lamp will not affect the final photograph. Position the lamp so that the light is pointed directly at the tip of the incense.Place the incense in an incense burner on a table in front of the black cloth (approximately one foot in front of it).Try to make sure the cloth hangs as flat against the wall as possible. Hang the black cloth from a large, blank wall.An external flash with a radio trigger or extendable cord.
Below we offer some tips and advice on how to photograph smoke. Have you ever seen a photograph of smoke, perfectly lit up on a black or white background? How do photographers capture the essence of smoke so flawlessly? Luckily, this technique is not as hard to duplicate as you may imagine.