She's Smoke
I took multiple different shots of this set up with different angles and settings, but this image ended up being my favorite of the shoot for a few different reasons. First, I like that my model (my sister, Brie Tofaute) is a silhouette. I also love the look of the blurred background from a short depth of field that creates contrast and adds character. Finally, the smoke is floating away from Brie as it surrounds and frames her just right to draw the viewers attention in. (I did not use photoshop to change the shape of the smoke. It was only used to make adjustments to color, contrast, and brightness.)
The mystic theme highlights the heightened chances of failure that smoke photography entails. My sister and I received a package of smoke bombs from our parents to celebrate New Years Eve and we decided to save a few to use for this photoshoot. Since we didn't have a lot to begin with, this really limited us to the amount of mistakes we could make without missing out on the shot completely. The orange tint came from the smoke bomb itself and compliments the yellow and orange hues of the sunset. I'm very grateful that even with limited resources and time (the sun, my only light source, was quickly slipping away), Brie and I were still able to successfully capture the idea we had in mind prior to our first ever smoke bomb session. I plan on someday revisiting this style of photography and get more creative with it.
My advice: be open to experimenting with new props and new techniques, even if you've never tried them before. Utilize every opportunity to try something different, and don't be afraid to make mistakes! Deciding last minute to save some celebratory sparklers and smoke bombs to play with during the day in front of a camera instead of at night led to the creation of this image.
This image was taken off the coast of Kihei in Maui, Hawaii using a Nikon D3100 with a fixed Nikon 35 mm f/1.8 lens. ISO was locked at 100 with an aperture of 2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/800 seconds.
Would you want to take a picture with a smoke bomb?
