It was tough to meet this challenge in time with everyone in the family ill with flu. I don't know why I'm not sick.
Shot with 1 off camera flash through a diffuser and a single flashlight behind and below to light the smoke. I considered a red gel for the flash light to give the smoke a red look. Maybe next time?
RAM edit in Light Room. Contrast, brightness, clarity, some dodge and burn, sharpen and render for Photoshop. In Photoshop, clone out smoke stick and small stray light. Add color contrast with Topaz and final dodge and burn. Save for web.
Statistics
Place: 27 out of 119 Avg (all users): 5.8904 Avg (commenters): 7.8000 Avg (participants): 5.6557 Avg (non-participants): 6.0588 Views since voting: 1282 Views during voting: 269 Votes: 146 Comments: 6 Favorites: 0
This is one of my top picks in this challenge. Love the steam (smoke) and the colors. I'm not too enamored by the total black bg on the left side. Sort of makes the red pepper too "cut out" looking. Otherwise, very nice.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
