I assume you mean actually taking pictures of smoke and using that rather than using a smoke brush in photoshop which is a lot easier.
if it is the first option I can think of 2 ways
if you have a pure black background then use a hue saturation colour adjustment layer and check the colourise box this will add colour to anything not black or white so all the different shades of gray.
Option 2 is go into the channels pannel and see which 1 shows up most of your smoke (probably green or blue. control and click that channel to make a selection of the smoke copy it to a new layer then create a new layer with either your image or a coloured layer right hand click it and select create clipping mask then that will add colour to the smoke only.
If you are using photoshop smoke brushes
create a dark background
select the colour white or a dirty white
create a new layer select the brush tool and use a smoke brush here are a few you can download
350+ Smoke Brushes for Photoshop - DesignM.ag
once you have the body of your smoke press control + T to bring up the transform options right click inside the transform bok and select warp and shape your smoke to however you want it. and apply the transformation
create a new layer and fill it with a colour ( or for creative effects use a multi coloured gradient and fill the layer change the layer blending mode to colour and possibly create a clipping mask
here is an example of using brushes and my psd so you can see the set up and layout I use
View attachment smoke.psd