Smoke Stack Smoke in Photo's

[rgengineoiler]

In recent years the Smoke and or Steam in Steam and Diesel  model photo's has really improved.  I remember the old days of air brushing cotton with shades of gray and black etc.  Now days the model photo's have taken a giant leap installing Smoke or Steam into model photo's and are quite realistic to view.  I have been a long time subscriber of RMC and MR and other publications.  So many of the stories written, and this month's RMC for instance,  are showing the models as so realistic because of this technique.  I have had my other hobby of Photography for 20 years or so and I do process files from my SLR's in Tiff on computer and PS.  So what are the model "Guru's" doing that I have not tried or missed?  Thanks for any replies.  Doug   

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Photoshop and plenty of stock photos to draw from.

[wm3798]

The best results I've gotten came from a free photo processing program called "Gimp."  I'm not sure if it was a flash in the pan or if it's still available.  I haven't tried downloading it on my new computer, but I tried a failed a few times after a previous upgrade.
It basically gave you the opportunity to add some smudges to the image, then work them over and over until you got the effect you were after.  First the original shot:


And the edited version:


I've also used the far more primitive method of dropping smoke in from a prototype image, as in this example, also using Gimp.




Lee

[Chris333]

Just use a Sharpie 

[MK]

Lee, Gimp is still available and supported.

[DKS]

If you're just going to do it once in a while, Gimp is probably a good solution. If you're going to make a habit of it, the horsepower of a full-featured photo editing application (such as Photoshop or Corel PhotoPaint) may be needed.

[rgengineoiler]

Thanks for the info.  I tried to download GIMP yesterday and failed but I'll try today again.  I don't run Internet Explorer.  I use FireFox and have for many years so I hope FF is not the issue.  I do have PhotoShop 3,(at the time was $600.00.)  but awhile back they stopped supporting Bridge,  so I have to bring my photo's in another way and use PS for my work.  Adobe wants a monthly fee now for PS or Lightroom and I don't like that idea at all and don't want to upgrade for another large amount of money.  I'll see what I can do with Gimp again today.   Doug

[MK]

Another alternative if you want to pay is Photo Shop Elements.  You can find it for around $70 on sale.  It's not a monthly rental like it's big brother but it has about 85% (depending on who you talk to ) of what it's big brother can do.

I have never once encountered a situation where I couldn't do something in PS Elements that I could have in PS.

[drgw0579]

I use Photoshop to clone in smoke from a real locomotive.  If possible the same class of the model.  I try to find a photograph in my collection of one that shows a similar perspective, and I'll resize if needed.  I won't clone the smoke exactly but get a representative copy.

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My son works with a person who had run the real locomotive, and I asked him if this looked good to him.  He thought that the fireman definitely had too much oil, but that there must be foamers present.

Bill Kepner

[drgw0579]

Doesn't have to be steam either.

Study photos of the real thing.  In this case, I remember several times I was waiting for a train to exit a tunnel and since it was struggling upgrade, when it did come out into the daylight, the smoke had engulfed the cab.  Note that smoke is never completely opaque, feather in the edges.  Start your smoke on a separate layer and use the eraser to get the see-through affect.

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Bill Kepner

[Rivet Miscounter]

Lee, Gimp is still available and supported.

First off, great info, this could end up being one of those Best Of threads pretty easily.

But...I want to caution those trying to download Gimp.   Many years ago there was a mod of Gimp that basically set up the menus and functions in a manner very similar to Photoshop called "GimpShop".   DO NOT TRY TO DOWNLOAD GIMPSHOP.   The project went stagnant and then a squatter got the domain and last I was aware the project/download site was fraught with malware.  The normal Gimp project is fine, however.

[DKS]

Note that smoke is never completely opaque...

Beg to differ. Never say never.

[randgust]

I wish I could take full credit, but my son the Photoshop wizard did the heat/exhaust shimmer in this one.   He used some photos as a guide, but I deliberately wanted one signal 'lost in heat and smoke'.

[Rich_S]

Beg to differ. Never say never.

Got to love it when those ol'Dash 8's tried to impersonate an ALCO    They still had mechanical governors and when starting them, you could really lay on the lay shaft and get them to smoke like an old ALCO. Of course you'd have to be careful, you could give them too much juice with the lay shaft and get some fire out the stack    A lot of that ended when they replaced the mechanical governors with EGU's, but that's a different story for another day     

[AlkemScaleModels]