Here comes the fun and creative part. In the last step you only had control over the setup and not the photographs that you were producing. Now you need to look through the shots on your computer and choose your favourite. Look for clean, sharply focussed images and delete the rest. This review process witll really narrow down your options and you will be able to choose the perfect image. Open this image up in photoshop.
For this tutorial I have chosen the following image...
Firstly you will need to decide whether or not you want your image to be on a black or a white background. I have chosen a white background so the first thing I do is to Invert the image (Image > Adjustments > Invert). You can keep the image on a black background if you want.
Now you need to create and adjustment layer (Layer > New adjustment layer > Levels) to correct the contrast of the image as shown below.
When you are making the layers adjustment you want to bring out the best contrast. You are aiming to see all of the detail in the smoke.
The three sliders you see are as follows. A black point slider on the left, a grey point slider in the middle and a white slider on the right. You will be able to see the histogram change as you make these adjustments.
Try to emulate the contrast in my picture (left).
OK, by now the picture is looking pretty good. Next, I like to sharpen the image a little to bring out the edges.
Firstly make sure that the image is selected rather than the adjustment layer that you previously created.
I find the best way of making this adjustment is to go to (Filter > Sharpness > Unsharp mask). You will have a better level of control over your sharpness.
Remember not to go overboard with this or you will end up getting a halo effect around the smoke which will not look professional.
Play around until you are happy with the image
If you want, you can stop here, you will have already achieved a great, sharp smoke art shot.
I normally like to select the burn tool and just gently brush around the darkest areas. I do the same on the highlights with the dodge tool to really make the image pop.
Step 3 - Further adjustments
I now want to crop the image to get the best viewpoint of it. Play around with the crop tool until you are happy with the composition. I have chosen to run my smoke diagonally so that it will look great on a canvas print.
Crop the image to cut down on some of the whitespace.
Now we are going to add some wow factor to the image by adding subtle colours. This bit is so much fun, you can play around with this for hours.
Firstly, create a new blank layer above the main smoke image. Set the layer mode to Color and the Opacity to around 38%.
Choose a large brush with a soft edge. Select a colour that you like and start to paint the colour onto the smoke. If you want a stronger colour just change the opacity of the colour layer.
You can also do this using a gradient layer but I prefer the control of being able to brush 2 or 3 colours on.
Play around until you are happy with the image
And thats it!
Thats all there is to it really. I hope you have fun playing with your smoke images. Below are some examples that I have done recently.
If you have enjoyed this tutorial please click the button below to "Digg it"
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