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Candles and Smoke (No Photoshop Tricks)
Candles and Smoke (No Photoshop Tricks)
GolferDDS


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Breaking New Ground (Basic Editing III)
Collection: patterns
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Location: home
Date: Jan 17, 2005
Galleries: Studio, Digital Art
Date Uploaded: Jan 17, 2005

 My goal was to give the illusion of different colored smoke coming from 3 colored candles. I achieved this by gluing the candles to a wood base. I used burned match heads to simulate the wicks. I put a syringe with a needle through each candle from the bottome where the wick was and allowed just the very tip of the needle to stick out hidden behind the match heads. Each of the 3 syringes was filled with either red, green or blue food coloring. the candles were place upside down in an aquarium filled with water. The syringes were expressed slightly to inject a small amount of the food coloring into the water and the resultant effect was achieved. The final picture was rotated 180 degrees so that the "smoke" appeared to be rising. It was cropped, sharpened, increased contrast and slightly increased saturation. It took many attempts to get a pleasing result. The water in the aquarium had to be replaced after 2 or 3 takes as the food coloring mixed together and darkened the water. This became quite tiring after a while!!
I also attempted a variation of this technique with a cigarette and another variation using 3 matches. I will post these pictures after the challenge is over for any helpful comments. I hope you like this photographic trick I devised!

Statistics
Place: 8 out of 191
Avg (all users): 7.0332
Avg (commenters): 7.9730
Avg (participants): 6.7115
Avg (non-participants): 7.1634
Views since voting: 18331
Views during voting: 654
Votes: 361
Comments: 58
Favorites: 23 (view)

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AuthorThread
 08/06/2011 05:23:58 PM
Genuine! I salute your creativity & patience!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/14/2005 01:34:17 PM
VERY, VERY NICE! And clever. Superb work! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/18/2005 07:16:35 PM
A good magician should never give away their good tricks...magical shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/26/2005 02:31:18 PM
very nice picture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/03/2005 05:18:53 AM
Damn clever! And well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/08/2005 03:43:34 AM
haha, clever :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/30/2005 12:21:57 PM
very clever, and a job well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2005 07:35:37 PM
at first i didnt like this photo, kinda funny colours, the cream background, etc. but its grown on me and i do like it now! :)
congratulations....!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2005 04:44:26 PM
Brilliantly executed. I never would have guessed that this was done in a tank of water...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2005 10:16:01 AM
nicely done. well deserved top 10 finish.
congrats.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2005 08:09:06 AM
genius...very nice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2005 03:26:33 AM
Hey lawrence: Another great one from your arsenal and boy are there more where this comes from. Your creativity is unique and this is a dashing and outstanding effort. Congratulations on your top ten finish.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2005 12:10:00 AM
Great to read about how it was done. Sounds like it was quite a lot of effort, but weel worth it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2005 11:22:58 PM
I am often amazed at the thought, and trouble, that goes into some of the entries. This is sensational.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2005 10:42:18 PM
Creative idea, very well done...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2005 07:14:10 PM
Congrats on your top ten finish Lawrence.
Nice "gentle" poke at, well, we know what..
Great creativity!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/25/2005 04:30:41 PM
Neat trick and a good jab at the past! Bumping up!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2005 03:01:45 PM
A definite winner to tease the senses with ink and water. Another bump!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2005 06:32:20 AM
Well it is certainly innovative! A 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2005 12:05:08 PM
Wow, thats weird looking.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2005 03:48:33 AM
Please share your secret with us after the competition, great pic in every respect. bumping up to 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2005 10:28:19 AM
very interesting photograph.. good use of negative space
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2005 12:54:00 AM
Is this really ink in water, image inverted to make it look like it's rising?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2005 11:08:30 PM
Nice illusion with water. Candles infront of fish tank, drop of food coloring behind (I was just playing with food coloring a water about a day ago ). Still a very cool shot though.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2005 10:19:15 AM
pretty kewl!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2005 08:09:49 AM
really cool
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2005 06:20:34 AM
cool.....I mean hot. Whatever, good shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2005 03:20:59 AM
i really hope you tell some secrets after voting!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2005 11:46:37 PM
Excellent details in the smoke. Very impressive and illusive technique. I'll be interested to read about it later.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2005 12:22:38 PM
if it was a trick it would have been a nice one
without just pretty spectaculair
i never saw thisb4 soo u totally fit the challenge
perfect job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2005 09:39:07 AM
This is a great picture...the background looks a little dull should be a little brighter but overall I love this picture! How did you do that?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 11:11:42 PM
Interesting :) ...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 11:09:07 PM
Now this is more like innovation. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 10:16:43 PM
This is awesome I dont know how you did this but I cant wait to see how you did it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 07:03:18 PM
Very clever. Well done.
 01/20/2005 05:52:01 PM
Okay... it looks like dye flatingin water. I m sure it is in water... Excllent shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 05:29:33 PM
Okay I'll assume this is straight out of the camera. Very distinctive photograph and the wisps of 'smoke' appear to arise from the candles. I think this was shot perhaps under water and the drifting dye is perhaps ink floating within the water. Or, perhaps this was shot against a backdrop of water and the drifting dye was painted into the water. In any event, quite a nice entry and one of the few I think really meet the spirit of the challenge. Well done, and I'll be tuning in later to hear how you did this! :) 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 03:30:51 PM
Awesome job... don't know how you did this one, but very awesome. An 8!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 11:57:11 AM
Food colourants? You've flipped this 180? :) Good idea for the challenge
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 11:54:28 AM
this is very good, so different. I like this alot and vote a 10.......well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 10:12:36 AM
Excellent shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 06:50:46 AM
Very cool technique. Nice comp.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 05:48:38 AM
One of my favorite shots!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/20/2005 05:45:38 AM
looks like a winner to me ...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 04:38:06 PM
they're hanging upside down in a container of water, right? that's pretty cool. i think i would have like it even more if the only "smoke" was the dark, more crisp smoke. but still a very original technique!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 03:53:04 PM
Very cool!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 10:49:57 AM
Great use of food dye!
I've tried shots like this before but couldn't manage to get such detailed drops of the dye. I'm wondering if you used something other than water as your liquid... looking forward to reading the explanation of this one :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 10:40:45 AM
this is a good shot. i feel the disclaimer in the title is unneccesary.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 07:20:22 AM
looks more like food coloring in water rather than smoke... is it?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 07:06:53 AM
This would be cooler if you couldn't see the source and if the background was white instead of pale yellow. It's a really cool idea. I'd like to know how you produced those colors! 5
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 05:46:36 AM
Very cool effect, the title spoils it a bit for me though
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 04:46:04 AM
Brilliant ide, well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 02:38:51 AM
Very effective.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 02:03:03 AM
Beautiful....looking forward to see how you did that?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2005 01:22:01 AM
Very clever. Took a while to figure out how you did that. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2005 09:26:45 PM
nah i dont believe you :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2005 08:06:55 PM
Great effect. Looks like dye being dropped into water and photographed upside down. Wonderfully done regardless of how you did it, it really does look like smoke at first glance�9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/18/2005 07:50:23 PM
z

Message edited by author 2005-07-12 08:06:36.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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