More black vases and smoke

[Manfred M]

I spent a few hours in the studio today, tuning the way I light my subjects. The same goes for the way I've laid down the smoke.

I replaced the black grasses with lighter coloured ones and added an organic orange-coloured element.

[Round Tuit]

The orange element certainly gets your attention but I am not sure how it relates to the vases. It seems to disturb the cohesion of the image. The smoke is also becoming a more prominent design element rather than just enhancing the background.

[Manfred M]

The orange element certainly gets your attention but I am not sure how it relates to the vases. It seems to disturb the cohesion of the image. The smoke is also becoming a more prominent design element rather than just enhancing the background.

That was exactly the point.

I started with vases and grasses and that got me so far. By expanding things (with a random brightly coloured element) and changing the nature of using smoke (including the amount of smoke) added a couple of new variables that gives a completely different approach, yet still includes the initial them with vases and grasses.

The smoke element can be heavy or a light touch. The interesting part for me is how using smoke adds an element of unrepeatable randomness to the image.