Smoke Machine Test

ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/15s, Focal Length 24mm

In early January I received the Smoke Genie which I kickstarted last year. The Smoke Genie is a small handheld smoke machine that is about the size of 20oz bottle of pop. I always wanted a smoke machine but a lot of the ones I have seen have been too large and can’t provide the type of control I would want.  Now I have worked with dry ice and you can’t really control that, but if I was going to invest in a smoke machine, I wanted to ensure it was controllable, met a variety of needs, and small to be able to easily store it.  The Smoke Genie met all those needs and is really designed for the small creative, not the DJ trying to make haze at the club or the big movie production team with budget to spare.   Only bad part is it doesn’t ship with batteries, so I had order batteries before I could use it.  So last weekend I finally had the batteries and a chance to test it out these are the results.

 To test the Smoke Genie, I set up a small still life set using a table, a black backdrop, a speed light with an umbrella, a light stand, a reflector, CTO gel, and some items from around the house. I went for something that could be a bit mystical and ended up with a bit of alchemist desk.  I did a variety of shots both with and without the smoke so I had a comparison. I also used two different attachments for the smoke machine, the want which allows you to precisely lay smoke and for lack of a better term the sponge which makes the smoke look a little closer to what you would get from dry ice.   Overall, I liked how the smoke hung and lingered, however the sponge attachment did make it look like dry ice smoke but it was quick to dissipate.  This could have been to the fact I was running an air purifier in the room, thus creating an air current so more testing might be needed.  I will say the smoke created from its fog juice did not have any noticeable smell, unlike the sweet-smelling smoke from the fog juice for other machines.  In conclusion I do see myself using this as a tool for some of my sessions and as away to expand my creativity.  Below are a few of the fully edited sample images.

ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/15s, Focal Length 24mm

ISO 100, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/160s, Focal Length 24mm