This is beautiful, if you don't mind Id love a few pointers. would be greatly appreciated. Wondering about how to get coloring of the smoke, lighting and exposure. Even if you do this at the end of the competition. i would like to try something like this. Sorry if this is a little unorthadoxed. but i really admire this piece.

I agree with Sheridan . Is this real smoke ? . Too perfect to be true .

@Sheridan: Hi there, I'm following Gavin Hoey's tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2d281_HoEQ) to get this result. What I did in the post processing step is increasing the contrast to make the smoke sharper. I just realise that the smoke colour becoming bluish afterward, but my guess, it could be caused by playing with white balance on the camera. Have a go and see what you can get Hope it helps

@roon: Fortunately, it's a real smoke

well done

Thank you, i have had a watch and i'll have a litle play around. At least my house will smell nice after this. lol.

Very nice composition, it reminds me a woman, like it, good luck!

Very Very Beautiful and a nice execution

Very interesting pattern, good capture!

Thank you very much! I always like your comments very far. I set out to find the smokiest incense I could find. Again Thank you!

I don't think the bottle adds anything to the photo.

author, I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but as this scene was not going to go anywhere fast, do you not think you could have set this 'shot' up a little better, to give it some artistic appearance rather than that of a 'snap' of a rubbish bin with an incense stick poking out of it!!

Look at lighting, contrast, angles etc..........all these things contribute to a well composed shot. There are many tutorials in the archives here for you to look at and learn from.........go see them, and try again.

agrees

Sorry , but i have to agree

everything is blurry.

Author: I think you had a good idea. But it is difficult to get good smoke images this way, I think. Even if you are using a point and shoot and/or don't have a lot of equipment you can try some variation of this: http://www.flickr.com/groups/technique/discuss/72157594252051944/

As far as setting up the composition, I would try a little harder.