Tips for using coloured smoke:

Here are some tips for using our coloured smoke emitters:

1. Colours look brightest in full direct sunlight
2. with strong backlight (e.g. from the sun) the colour output fades considerably
3. if it stops burning, light it again!
4. have some water handy to douse if it produces an uncontrollable flame
5. dark grey is great for simulating a real dirty fire smoke
6. turn white smoke coloured with gelled flash etc
7. move the smoke around vs move your subjects
8. don’t use on very windy days
9. shade and overcast days work well
10. use someone to help light when using multiple at once
11. to aid in lighting, invert the cartridges over the flame source
12. make sure the whole top surface “takes” to get a proper output
13. practice with one before you commit to burning them for a shoot
14. if in doubt about output, staining etc – rethink
15. don’t be a dick
16. see above
17. end of the day sunlight (golden hour) works really well especially with white, orange and yellow smoke
18. cut the smoke up with trees / sunlight breaking through things. Look for dappled light and this will create sun beams
19. read the FAQ for handling and storage
20. use a turbo lighter or such (cigarette lighters will highly annoy you especially in wind!)
21. smoke direction can change frequently with wind – anticipate / move subjects to counter
22. check subjects DON’T suffer from asthma or other respiratory isues
23. have some baby wipes on hand to wipe hands afterwards. Use thick heavy gardening gloves if you are concerned with staining fingers
24. when holding – be careful of melted plastic – don’t hold until the very end – it’ll be like holding a match until your fingers burn!
25. Orange works great for film / fire glow effects
26. you can empty the smoke powder out and burn smaller amounts. I’ll blog about this later