@jamesstaddon, if I was going to shoot for steam, I would definitely recommend using a speedlight instead of continuous lighting, for a couple of reasons:
- It can be more concentrated, you won’t get all the light bleeding onto your black background.
- The duration is so short, that you don’t have to worry about your shutter speed. (Use a narrower aperture to get it more in focus.
I thought I had another reason, but I can’t remember it now. 🙂 I accidentally got a picture that way at an event I was shooting recently (this is a 100% crop):
