Just lately, I had a photographer pal keep for a couple of days. Whereas we did have a number of days of nice climate and we have been out and about, we had one really horrible day. It was so depressing that we opted to not exit, however spend a couple of hours being inventive within the studio with some dry ice.
So don’t let the climate carry you down. Take advantage of the dreary climate and have an indoor pictures journey with mates.
Seize some dry ice
You will have to do a little bit of a search on the web, however I’m fairly positive dry ice is fairly simple to acquire in most areas. It’s pretty low cost, it simply wants a bit care throughout dealing with and storage. I’ve an inexpensive plastic cooler and a pair of BBQ tongs particularly for dry ice. I bought 2 kg of dry ice pellets, which could look like lots, however when you think about 1 kg is roughly a big handful, 2 kg isn’t that a lot. Nevertheless, a bit goes a great distance. Simply watch out NOT to let the dry ice contact your pores and skin, as it will probably burn. Tongs or gloves are the best way to go when dealing with the dry ice.
Set the scene
We set our scene up on a desk, utilizing two Godox AD200 with strip packing containers to provide a smooth, subtle gentle to the scene. As it’s October, we determined to go for some spooky Halloween appears. Good for dry ice, proper? Witches, cauldrons, spooky masks, jack-o-lanterns and such. We discovered that inserting black jersey cloth on the desk ‘grabbed’ the fog and made it linger longer than with out it.
How finest to make use of dry ice?
As soon as your scene is about and your digicam centered, it’s time to seize the motion. I discovered that utilizing scorching water created extra fog once you dropped the dry ice into it with tongs. By no means contact the dry ice along with your fingers. I dropped a couple of dry ice pellets right into a glass or ceramic bowl 3/4 stuffed with scorching water. It’ll fizzle and pop and make a lot of great fog. Within the martini glass, we additionally added some meals coloring to the water (I feel we might have added extra).
Digicam gear
Spooky Halloween enjoyable
Add a bit Photoshop magic
Aside from my Godox speedlights (1/32 energy), I additionally used a Godox X1 set off on my Sony a7R III. I used my Tamron 28-75mm lens at f/3.5 – f/5.0. Simply to free our arms up for putting the dry ice, we popped our cameras on tripods to make issues simpler. Contemplate including gels or enjoying with completely different gentle sources to get actually inventive.
Clear up
Usually, you may solely use a small bowl of water as soon as, because the dry ice cools it down tremendous fast. We used a mixture of ceramic and glass bowls. Even contained in the cauldron, it was simply simpler to deal with. As soon as cool, the dry ice is just not as efficient. When the dry ice has dissolved and the fog is gone, you may get rid of the water and begin once more. We had a bucket readily available to pour the used water into. We additionally had a jug of scorching water helpful to high up our bowls for every shot. Each might be poured onto the backyard when carried out. The dry ice solely lasts a couple of hours, so there’s nothing to scrub up when all of it dissipates. It’s finest to shoot on the day you collected it. The ice will final 1-2 minutes relying on how a lot you add and the quantity of water you utilize. It’s possible you’ll must experiment a bit at first.
Greatest with mates
Now you are able to do this by yourself, however for me, it’s time effectively spent with pictures mates. Get inventive and discover completely different setups and settings. It doesn’t must be spooky, however that may be a lot of enjoyable too.
Try the little behind-the-scenes video I captured on my cell phone. Bubble bubble, boil and bother!
