Day 28: Distributing light through steam

The third from the last challenge introduced the concept of using atmospheric elements like smoke, steam or fog to diffuse light and create an ethereal mood.

I’ve seen numerous Instagram posts using smoke bombs, but I wasn’t very keen on buying them from Amazon, even though they cost just under £5. The main reason was that I couldn’t really find a place to light them up in London where I wouldn’t get people looking at me patronizingly.

I ended up trying different concepts for a couple of days, like trying to steam up my bathroom and get a self — portrait through the mirror. But I’ve done that already.

I also used my vapor to blow smoke at the Christmas tree and play with the tree lights. Because, you know, tis the season.

I even tried using my lensball together with my vapor to create something atmospheric. Truth is, that it looked much better in my head than the actual photo.

In the end, I went for a somewhat safer option. I decided to take the bus home on a rainy evening and deliberately sat at the front of the bus. I knew the bus would be all steamy and I wanted to capture the essence of light through the steamy windows.

The combination of night, rain, city lights and a steamy window created a magical atmosphere. I used a pretty slow shutter speed of 1:6 to ensure enough light was coming in my lens as I kept my ISO to 200 and aperture to f/2.4.

Not my best shot, or concept, but I got to keep up with the challenge!