Smoking Permitted: An Interview with Photographer Graham Jeffery on Smoke Photography

Article by Rhonda Callow (10,565 pts )
Published on Jan 30, 2009

Who would have thought that combining an incense stick, black velvet, a dark room and camera could result in some of the most amazing and creative images ever to be seen?

Smoke Photography by Graham Jeffery

The Art of Smoke Photography

Smoke photography is truly an impressive and inspirational art form. Like the Rorschach ink blot test, smoke photography will have you seeing hidden images within the whole, gently guiding a person’s way of thinking to become more creative and imaginative.

When producing smoke photographs, you’re only limited by your creativity. I’ve recently had the pleasure of speaking with Graham Jeffery, a photographer from a small market town in the middle of England called Hinckley, who has truly mastered the art of smoke photography.

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Smoke Photography

The Interview

Bright Hub (BH): How did you come to discover the art of smoke photography?

Graham Jeffery (GJ): I stumbled into it, I set up the studio (I converted the loft space at home into a small studio about 4 years ago) to photograph candle flames and then got interested in the shapes of the smoke I saw when snuffing out the flames. I then experimented briefly with cigarette and cigar smoke before settling on incense sticks as the best source of smoke.

Photographing SmokePhoto by Graham Jeffery

BH: I see from your website that you use nothing but Canon equipment. Any rhyme or reason to this?

GJ: When I retired from computing I had a lump of money that I had earmarked for new camera equipment. I wanted the flexibility of an SLR and the best quality kit I could afford. At the time the Canon 1Ds was streets ahead of the competition in offering a full size sensor of 11 Megapixels and a build quality that would last a long time. I didn't expect to ever have that sort of money to invest in a hobby again. So the 1Ds body lead in turn to a range of Canon lenses.

BH: What photo editing software do you recommend?

GJ: I use Capture One from Phase One as the raw converter and Photoshop for all other editing.

Smoke Photo

Please continue on to the final page of our interview with Graham Jeffery, where you will learn how long it takes to produce smoke photos, tips on taking photographs of smoke and to find out where to see more of Graham's images.

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Rhonda Callow (10,565 pts )

I live in a small village on the rural west coast of Vancouver Island. I adore spending time with my brilliant husband, Brett , my 12 year old son, Izaac (who is growing up way too fast!) and Zion (my... read more

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