In a past life producing TV commercials, we always needed huge (unfeasible) amounts of steam coming of various Uncle Ben's products (and cups of Nescafe).
We tended to shoot real backlit steam (usually using the tampon route described in another post). We shot a lot of footage and looked for the best bit. In post-production we increased the contrast to make the steam more visible, this was then pulled of the black background and matted onto the live action shots. I don't know how well you can pull steam off a black background in Photoshop (should be a quick test if you shoot digital). The advantage is that you can treat the steam as a separate layer that can be shot before the client turns up. It would be interesting to hear what route you take. Regards Richard Lewisohn =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
