When I first saw this picture, I was sure it was a photoshop, because cookies can't float in the air by themselves. After looking for information on the web, I understood how it is done and decided that I should definitely try it! Now I will share it with you, in fact, it is very easy and simple.
I shot with my old Nikon D3000 camera. You can just as easily shoot everything on your smartphone, it will turn out no worse than that!
So.
First of all, I bought the so-called American cookies: the ones with chocolate chunks. I took several variants to try, but, quite expectedly, the cutest (and tastiest) of all turned out to be, of course, Milka cookies. This is the one in the final photo. On the photo of preparatory work is some analog, one of the trial variants.
Light
Don't forget that the best light for shooting is daylight, natural light. That's what I used when choosing a room for the shoot. The lightest room in the apartment was the dressing room. I didn't have to use a flash or any additional light sources.
Next, I took a needle and thread with black colored thread to hang the cookies. In my case, the thread is black to blend in with the background. It follows that the color of the thread should be matched to the color of the background, or take a transparent fishing line. A separate thread for each cookie.
About the background
I've had a photophone for a long time - plywood with two different prints glued on it. But they are white in color and, in this case, they didn't suit me. So I just put a black sweatshirt on top of the plywood. The bottom part of the background is just linoleum on the floor in my dressing room. I tried lighter options in the form of plaid and sweatshirt, but brown linoleum turned out to be the best fit.
After I decided where I was going to shoot, I faced the most difficult question: where to hang the cookies on the strings? The first thing that came to my mind was to put a bamboo stick (I don't have anything else in my house) on two stools standing at a distance from each other.
When I went to the kitchen to get stools, I saw a baby highchair and decided to give it a try. Just what I needed! The straps to which I tied the strings allowed me to easily adjust the height, which is very convenient when you have already started to take off and the distance from the cookie to the mug turns out to be too big or, on the contrary, small.
I spent most of the shoot lying on my belly on the floor to be at mug level. Minus the threads - they kept getting twisted. I had to catch the cookies in the right position.
After shooting enough footage, I moved on to processing. To my shame, I still don't know how to use Photoshop. But for you it means that you can easily repeat my actions.
So. I opened the most successful shot in the Snapseed app on my phone. I went to Tools ==> Spot. I used the brush to remove the black threads from the photo. By the way, it was not difficult, the main thing is to remove them from the cookie, and on a black background they are already almost invisible. Saved.
Then I loaded the photo into the Lightroom app (also on my phone) and added what I thought was a suitable preset to it. I saved it.
And the final touch is the smoke. It had to be added separately. I tried to pour boiling water into the mug when shooting, but it was not visible, I did not waste time on it and decided to go the simple way. I typed in the search engine "smoke from tea", downloaded a favorite picture in PNG format (without background, so that it was only smoke), added it to the photo in the application Snapseed, using the tool "Double Exposure".
That's it! The unusual photo is ready. I hope you were interested to know how this magic happens on the photo and now you can make magic yourself.
Oh yes, I forgot the best part, at the end I had a mug of tea with some delicious cookies. A great reward for a job well done!
Live