Create Smoke Effects In Your Photos With A Clever Light Painting Technique

We’ve previously discussed lightpainting — the use of slow shutter photography to create amazing light effects — but there’s much more you can do if you expand your toolkit beyond a simple flashlight. Photographer Wen-Jié Yang utilised a strobe flash and neon tubing to create floating snowflakes and smoke.

As demonstrated in the video above, all you need is a dark room and a few kinds of lights. You can see how Wen-Jié created the smoke by moving around the neon tubing in desired motion patterns. The result is hard to believe it came from only light and wasn’t photoshopped. While he used a lot of specific materials, creating these effects on your own in your own way doesn’t require too much effort. If you want to make some really interesting images, follow Wen-Jié’s instructions and give it a shot.

Light Painting Tutorial SMOKE [Wen-Jié Yang on YouTube via DIY Photography