photography mentor for the Westlake High School, adding a sparkle to the day

So I am a photography mentor for the Westlake High School Independent Study class and this semester, Nolan Weinschenk is the senior student I am helping to learn photography and Photoshop editing skills. On our first day of training to prepare for shooting abstract imagery of smoke rising and curling from a stick of incense, I set up two 600 rt flashes with flags to block the light from hitting a black background, set the camera on the tripod and lit what I thought was incense. To our slight dismay, it turned out to be a sparkler. So we just went to the editing studio and I taught him 3 ways to replace a sky in Photoshop.

Photography mentor and Nolan on the set to shoot abstract smoke but surprised that our smoke source is not incense but a sparkler

Here is the smoke shot we ended up getting for his portfolio:

Nolan smoke abstract photograph austin photography