Fog Machine

Has anyone ever done a shoot with a fog machine? If so how did you use it? What was the theme, etc? I'm asking because I have a fog machine. Not quite sure what to do with it. I randomly watched a photoshoot tutorial on youtube yesterday, and the guy just happen to add some smoke in between his model and the plain paper backdrop. In his final image, it wasn't really evident that there was any smoke there, maybe he just did it really faintly. 

I turned on the fog machine just now, just to see if turning it on and getting it going is as easy as I would think it is, and it is simple. I then noticed an aweful smell from the smoke machine. Which made me think how am I going to shoot with this thing on and stinking up my studio? I'm in a windowless enclosed space. There is a door that leads to the hallway, but stinky smell isn't going to leave in a hurry if I have the machine on for a while. So part of me is now wondering if it is worth the hassle of playing with it.

Thoughts anyone?  

A dark background and light coming from behind shining forward through the fog work well.

Depending what type of generator you have the fog may tend to creep along the ground - I have a smoke machine, so it tends to rise, so I have the machine on the floor. With fog, you may want it high so it drops into shot.

Small amounts of smoke work best, so you can see individual wisps, otherwise you do get a general diffusing fog effect.

I have a good example in my 3rd shot on this page: http://www.edwardshaw.co.uk/people-and-portrait-galleries/model-portfolios/

Any smell may get better with use with a smoke machine as whatever is causing the smell gets burned off.

(Edited on 2012-04-24 04:30:42 by esp_imaging)

Thanks for the info and the example. I found it really helpful. 

Disclaimer: I know nothing at all about fog machines.

Are you familiar at all with Drew Gardener's photography? He likes smoke machines and maybe he says something that you'll find useful in parts of his blog.

I just finished reading Drew Gardener's blog. Really cool stuff. Thanks for sharing. 

What theasis said.


Here are a couple examples of my fog machine attempts. I took black cloth and made a tent behind the old planks had a fan and strobe in side the tent. Both the strobe and and fan where blowing out to force the fog between the planks.

The smoke effect looks cool in your pics

Turn off the smoke alarms.

I've used one quite a bit in shooting high school seniors,  it's ed out really popular there.  I stretched out shiny silver mylar on the floor and it acts as a nice mirror, looks as if they are suspended in the smoke.  I did find after about 2 dozen shoots it did leave an oily residue on nearby surfaces.

Yeah I heard of the cheap fluid leaving a residue. I have to Rosco Fluid and have been pretty luck not to have too much residue other than on the machine and any hoses I use.


Found this on Rosco's site which might help

Amazing info.Lots of possibilities Thanks for sharing.

Just to clear up a few points mentioned above I use the following on a weekly basis in my local theatre.
Haze machines normally run throughout the performance and put a very light haze (fog) in the scene. There are two types of machines, one uses water based fluid and will not leave a residue, oil based fluids do leave a residue. Backlightling with a color wash from par cans and a shallow depth of field gives a great effect but this could look like noise. Backlighting with profile spots and gobos also looks good with beams of light breaking through. All of the haze machines I have used do not smell.
Smoke machines are normally just used to add a blast of smoke and although we use odorless  fluid you can buy fluid with different scents, apple, cherry, etc this stems from their use in discos.
Low smoke / dense smoke is a similar effect to using dry ice these machines tend to be bulky due to a large chamber which has to be filled with ice to cool the smoke down and stop it from rising.
Although I have photographed a great deal with haze or smoke for theatre use I don't have many here at iStock. Here is one from five years ago.