'It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.'

Worked on this shot for an hour at a stretch. I saw this picture in a friend's Instagram feed and I bugged him for over a week on how to do it. This friend, Srinivas, lives in the US and patiently answered all my questions and even sent me a message explaining the setup and how to do it, in brief. :) I picked up my camera and went for it. Here were the outcomes. Hopefully, I will get better at it over time. :) The trick is to get the smoke right after the candle goes off. :)

The picture details are the same for all the three. In fact, the last two are the same, with on in black and white and the other, normal. :)

Picture details:

Aperture: F/8.0
Shutter: 5 sec.
ISO: 100
Lens: 50 mm.
Flash: Off
Camera: Canon EOS 550D