Francoise, photographing smoke has been on my to-do list for a while. I don't have any incense sticks like the tutorials suggest. I can certainly see how they make the job easier. I don't have an external flash, either. For this shot, I lit a candle and blew it out (lots of times). I have an LED panel light that I set up somewhat behind the candle to provide the illumination. I set the camera on timer and blew out the candle just before the burst of exposures. Most of the 250 images didn't come out this well. @francoise
@francoise