Lighting light smoke in studio

[Christian Dietl]

Hey guys.

We´ve a shooting a commercial next week and need tips for a setting like this:

We are shooting in a studio-atmosphere.
It is important that the smoke is very lightweight and NOT dense or heavy-cloudy. The topic of the spot is: Smoked food and not burned food.

What kind of smoke would you prefer? Are there any special "controllable" kinds of smoke? We have to keep the smoke in the background while the person is coming towards the camera. What about lighting - any tips on lighting smoke?

thank you,
all the best;
Chris

 

[Clint Lealos]

I like Rosco Light Fog for what you are trying to do. You need a dark background to make the smoke pop. I would simply back light the fog with a hard source like a tungsten fresnel. Adjust color temperature to taste using color correction gels. The edge light on the girl in that picture is also the smoke backlight just to give you an idea. Good luck!

 

[Peter Strietmann]

Try using a hazer. Not as dense as a fogger. Reel effects rents them, http://www.reelefx.com/index.php?c=rental.view&id=16 and http://www.reelefx.com/index.php?c=rental.view&id=4

 

[Michael Ou]

Also a heads up, depending on how heavy the haze, may set off smoke detectors. So let the facility staff know of the fogger/hazer use. You don't want your shoot cut short by a visit from the fire dept

 

[Christian Dietl]

Thanks for the advise.
We´ll rent both hazer and fogger - to be on the save side.

 

[Billy Jim]

Perhaps consider smoke cookies, pellets, etc. for more localized effect?

 

[Frank Martin]

I would be very careful with zinc chloride smoke ( cookies). Not meant to be inhaled

 

[Christian Dietl]

Hi.
Better late than never ... Here is the final result: https://vimeo.com/122148559
Thank you for your tips. We used "normal" hazer, which gave us the best results.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

MMMMMMM Sausage....

 

[ericyoung]

Interesting. Normally a hazer is intended to produce a uniform "mist" rather than a distinct cloud.