Smoke Screen

[Elo76]

So this has happened to me the last two years now. My show starts off and all of the smoke just sits there and blocks the rest of my show. Last year I chalked it up to the high humidity and no breeze, so this year I programmed in some pauses, slowed things down a tad and added in some slow NOAB's to try to let things clear. Well...I had the exact same conditions and same result. All of the smoke just hung out in front of the show.

I shoot two identical rows about 15ft apart and go front to back. Am I doing something wrong here? My wife said to get another system and spread it out, but that would make 2 smaller smoke screens, just further apart. I thought about shooting back to front, but if there was a slight breeze the other way, then I would get the same result.

What can I do? It's kind of depressing after all the work for most of the show to be blocked. Below is a low quality cell video of the show someone sent me. I don't have mine ready to post yet, but you can see that in less than a minute, my show is all smoke.

https://youtu.be/o4Atz3S6KwQ

I really appreciate any help you guys can offer with this. I'm kind of discouraged about investing all of the time and money for this to happen again.

[Mattp]

Sorry... but i had the exact same issue this year... and have never before... i do believe its having 0 breeze....im thinking myself what can be done...and i thought maybe to do the lay out in rows and start shooting from the back row and move foward... only problem is usually as the show goes on i shoot progressively bigger stuff... and that i always put farthest away from the audience....and as much as black sky sucks..losing the show to clouds might suck more...so maybe putting a few bigger breaks in to give a little time for the smoke to clear

[Icooclast]

this happens at our city's show for a few minuets too, sometimes, anyway.. i am thinking you guys are right, no breeze to blow the smoke away. sometimes the smoke even blows into the crowd and makes it hard to see the people from where i usually sit. i can't even imagine what that does to one's lungs

[Mattp]

nice show by the way!!!! but the smoke screen definitely sucks after all the hard work!!!

[MtnViewPyro]

It’s having no wind to move the smoke. My show a few years back, I started the show off with a case of 76 pro line RWB candles. It took half of the show for the smoke to clear from that. I would suggest since your having this issue two years in a row, to start the show off slow without zipper type cakes. Maybe throw up some big shells or salutes to get their attention. Your intro was awesome, but a smoke induced killer.

[PyroGyro]

This may sound stupid but I wonder if a few industrial strength fans blowing diagonally upwards would help move the smoke out of the way. Yeah it wouldn't work for smoke 200+ feet in the air but it might at 100 and below.

[Elo76]

nice show by the way!!!! but the smoke screen definitely sucks after all the hard work!!!

Thanks! It does suck. Especially two years in a row.


It’s having no wind to move the smoke. My show a few years back, I started the show off with a case of 76 pro line RWB candles. It took half of the show for the smoke to clear from that. I would suggest since your having this issue two years in a row, to start the show off slow without zipper type cakes. Maybe throw up some big shells or salutes to get their attention. Your intro was awesome, but a smoke induced killer.

Yeah...It seems that the zipper and fan cakes were the biggest contributors to the smoke. They just layer it in there and build a wall. What I should have did was hit the pause button and let it clear, but I was too flustered to remember that I have one...lol.


This may sound stupid but I wonder if a few industrial strength fans blowing diagonally upwards would help move the smoke out of the way. Yeah it wouldn't work for smoke 200+ feet in the air but it might at 100 and below.

I've actually thought of doing this. Gotta think of something because if this happens again next year...I might give up.

[BeerGuyEd]

Nothing scientific here but it always seems like ground burning type effects just put off a lot of smoke. Coupled that with the fact they are low to the ground the smoke cloud just keeps building. Smoke rises so the thick cloud (caused by little to no wind) rises very slowly and into the area of the sky where everything else is firing. Once your up in the atmosphere a bit there is possibly more wind and/or less smoke produced from the explosion of the shell going off. When I see huge smoke clouds produced in the area of the sky where shells are exploding usually takes a ton of shells going off to start to cause problems.

[Mattp]

This may sound stupid but I wonder if a few industrial strength fans blowing diagonally upwards would help move the smoke out of the way. Yeah it wouldn't work for smoke 200+ feet in the air but it might at 100 and below.

HAHA!!!... after this year i actually thought of that too!! i feel any bit of air movement would help.. i also didnt think to take a pause in between songs to let it clear until afterward.. i said oh $h!t.. i couldve just taken a pause !!!

[Kooooou]

Nothing scientific here but it always seems like ground burning type effects just put off a lot of smoke. Coupled that with the fact they are low to the ground the smoke cloud just keeps building. Smoke rises so the thick cloud (caused by little to no wind) rises very slowly and into the area of the sky where everything else is firing. Once your up in the atmosphere a bit there is possibly more wind and/or less smoke produced from the explosion of the shell going off. When I see huge smoke clouds produced in the area of the sky where shells are exploding usually takes a ton of shells going off to start to cause problems.
I stopped incorporating firecracker rolls and fountains in my shows because of the above. I also limit the use of mines.

[Elo76]

I stopped incorporating firecracker rolls and fountains in my shows because of the above. I also limit the use of mines.

I've never used firecracker rolls or fountains in my show, but I do use zipper cakes and fan cakes. The fan cakes do tend to build a wall especially the ones which throw up a double layer with mines and shells over top. Maybe part of the problem, other than zero breeze, is that when I'm shooting the fan and zipper cakes, I'm shooting a whole case at a time. Most fan cases were 4 at a time. Maybe I should cut it in half?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I think you've just had bad luck the past few years. Have you thought about using a new shoot site? If you shoot at 9pm for example, drive by a different potential shoot site and check the winds. See what's happening. Are there buildings or a tree line or something else blocking wind where you shoot now? If so, get a new shoot site. If it's normally breezy where you shoot, then you've just had some bad luck. It will turn around. I had the same issue (among others!) last year. This year was fine.

[Elo76]

I think you've just had bad luck the past few years. Have you thought about using a new shoot site? If you shoot at 9pm for example, drive by a different potential shoot site and check the winds. See what's happening. Are there buildings or a tree line or something else blocking wind where you shoot now? If so, get a new shoot site. If it's normally breezy where you shoot, then you've just had some bad luck. It will turn around. I had the same issue (among others!) last year. This year was fine.

Yeah...I've had some bad luck. This year my shoot site was up on a ridge and last year it was in a valley. There is usually a breeze up here, so I thought I would have been ok. I thought wrong...hopefully it will be better next year. I was even thinking about splitting the show between two different sites and alternating to give each time to clear. Sounds good in theory, but the smoke could still travel over and block the other site.

[Pyro Paul]

Just shooting in the dark here, but some considerations you might look at. It kind of appeared to me that the smoke was moving towards the audience. In my case the wind almost always comes out of the south so I have my front facing the west. This year the light breeze came from the north east so it still cleared most of the smoke out. Does your shoot site face the east or west? Also, rising effects and ground effects do generate the most smoke so incorporate less of them into your show or put pause points where you can let the smoke dissipate. So there are several things you can take into consideration the next time you set up your show. What direction the wind normally comes from, what choices you have in direction to face your fireworks, stopping points to let smoke dissipate, limiting smoke generators in order to limit the amount of smoke produced. The zipper cakes and fan cakes are cool but limit them and try to find more non rising effect cakes and limit your ground effects if the wind is non existent. Just my 2 cents.

[Elo76]

Just shooting in the dark here, but some considerations you might look at. It kind of appeared to me that the smoke was moving towards the audience. In my case the wind almost always comes out of the south so I have my front facing the west. This year the light breeze came from the north east so it still cleared most of the smoke out. Does your shoot site face the east or west? Also, rising effects and ground effects do generate the most smoke so incorporate less of them into your show or put pause points where you can let the smoke dissipate. So there are several things you can take into consideration the next time you set up your show. What direction the wind normally comes from, what choices you have in direction to face your fireworks, stopping points to let smoke dissipate, limiting smoke generators in order to limit the amount of smoke produced. The zipper cakes and fan cakes are cool but limit them and try to find more non rising effect cakes and limit your ground effects if the wind is non existent. Just my 2 cents.

Yes the smoke was moving towards the audience. My show is actually facing north. I thought most of our wind/weather comes from the west, but I will have to pay more attention to that from now on. I do a small show on Labor Day, so I will note the wind direction in the days leading up to the shoot. I would hate to eliminate the zipper and fan cakes, but I will try to minimize them.