I recently photographed the senior basketball players at North Duplin High School. I really wanted their banners to look dynamic, so I used a fog machine. I was initially worried about setting off fire alarms with the fog. Lucky for me, that I've tried this at three different schools and have been in the clear. The fog or smoke is just water and food grade glycerin which is safe to be around. 

I light the fog so that it really stands out. I do this by using colored gels. The athlete stands in front of the fog, although that's easier said than done. The air conditioner in the room we were in, kept coming on and off and made the fog go all over the room. We had to wait for the fog to be in the right place and we did not want the fog between the athlete and my camera. I've learned to bring a fan, to clear out any unwanted fog.

I had the athletes pick the posing for their banners, however they were constrained by the size of the banner. They couldn't do any really wide posing, because they just wouldn't fit on the banner. I tried to encourage the athletes to keep their arms reasonably close to their bodies. 

The athletes were really excited to see their portraits, because this was their first time working with fog. I have a computer screen that the students could immediately see what their images would look like.