Method 1 of how to distract yourself from studying for a statistics exam... playing with smoke.

Light an incense stick and grab your camera and flash. I was shooting against a black backdrop and had the flash set up to the side firing through the smoke (from my right to my left). I used a 50mm and didn't have my tripod handy so shot it all handheld. Settings were ISO100, f/4, 1/200sec and this is what it looks like.

This is how the shots look straight out of camera.

After a little playing in photoshop this is my final image. I called it "The King & I".

To achieve this look you just need to create a new invert adjustment layer which switches the black and whites and then add a gradient layer and pick the fill pattern. If you change the blend mode to "soft light' it will only allow the colour to come through on the smoke and not the background.

Enjoy