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View Full Version : Foggy Lupines--how do you shoot fog???



Cheryl Flory
10-02-2010, 04:32 PM
Canon 40D
Canon 70-200mm at 78mm
1/15"
f11
aperture priority
ISO 400
EC +.33

I did a slight S curve and saturated. And removed a few spare twigs from the dead tree. Now I also see two oof sticks in the lower right that should have been cloned out also.

Especially after seeing the other images here, this seems rather flat and boring. Not at all how it "felt" that morning . How DO you photo fog to give the atmosphere that was there at the time????

Rob Miner
10-02-2010, 05:51 PM
Cheryl, I think that a scene like this one needs to be shot numerous times from various aspects. If the scene has meaning for you - then it is there - find it! As people that critique, we do not have the benefit of your inner self.

Rob...............

Dave Mills
10-02-2010, 08:05 PM
Hi Cheryl, I feel you captured the foggy atmosphere. I'm afraid thats what fog does..makes an image somewhat flat but the mood is what generally grabs the viewer.
I feel you balanced the comp well and as you mentioned I would evict the oof flowers on the lower rt. You might look at cropping the image from the rt to the oof flowers.
The image is cut just about in half. I would have liked to have seen more in one half than the other. I also might wish for a stronger center of interest than the tree...

Cheryl Flory
10-02-2010, 08:10 PM
Dave, when I saw the scene, it was the Lupines that really caught me eye. But when I saturated them in PP, they just didn't look right.
Would shooting at ISO 100 and longer ss have brought out more color/depth?

Dave Mills
10-02-2010, 10:37 PM
Hi Cheryl, I'm really not sure about what effect the iso would have on the image.Don't want to give advice I'm not sure of.
However, I will suggest if you come across a similar condition to experiment with the iso....

Kaushik Balakumar
10-03-2010, 04:56 AM
Colourful frame with some neat composition.
The contrast is generally low in the in a scene with mist/fog. When the same gets a contrast boost in PS, it can lose that mood.

Myer Bornstein
10-03-2010, 05:30 AM
Cheryl for fog here is an answer from Tim Gray, hope it helps:

There are several potential ways you could approach this, and in general it seems when a photographer wants to enhance the effect of fog in an image, the first thing that comes to mind is to create an adjustment layer that perhaps reduces contrast and brightens the overall image. However, in my experience that's not the best approach. Instead, I prefer to add an image layer that helps to enhance (or even create) the appearance of fog in the image.

Start by adding a new empty image layer above the Background image layer (or above all image layers if there are more than one). Then fill that layer with white (you can choose Edit > Fill from the menu and set the Use popup in the Fill dialog to White, for example). Then reduce the Opacity setting for this new layer using the control at the top-right of the Layers panel, until the effect looks good. You can also add a layer mask to this "fog" layer and then use the Brush tool to paint with black in any areas you don't want the fog effect to appear. Reduce the Opacity for the Brush tool, or choose a shade of gray, if you don't want to completely eliminate the fog effect in the areas you're painting, but rather want to tone down the effect slightly.

In this way you'll be able to add a hazy fog effect to the image, targeting it to specific areas of the image if needed.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

Cheryl Flory
10-03-2010, 06:05 AM
Thanks for all of the help!

Michael Gerald-Yamasaki
10-03-2010, 07:52 PM
Cheryl,

Greetings. I don't follow this forum much but happened upon your post... Here's some ideas:

79470

Fog more or less softens and de-saturates but you want to preserve in certain areas the detail and color. What I did for the repost is on a separate layer in LAB mode curves, add contrast and lighten in L, add color contrast in both A and B (steep curves while keeping color balanced). (Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that but essentially I used a couple of LAB curves until I was satisfied in producing an image that had the detailed saturation as you see in the foreground).

That detailed saturated image I placed in a layer over the original, blended with overlay at about 30% opacity, added a vector mask (white) and painted black over the middle foggy region (avoiding the tree).

The goal from my perspective was to add detail and saturation to the foreground flowers and detail to the tree trunk, and a little detail to the upper leaves of the bg trees.... leaving the softer middle foggy part more or less as is.

Anyway some ideas to play with...

Cheers,

-Michael-

Cheryl Flory
10-03-2010, 08:20 PM
Thanks, Michael.

Michael Gerald-Yamasaki
10-04-2010, 11:31 AM
Thanks, Michael.
Uh, sure. Sorry it wasn't more interesting to you...

Cheers,

-Michael-

Cheryl Flory
10-04-2010, 11:44 AM
Michael, it was very interesting to me. I don't know why you think it wasn't. The perspective you were said you were going for, is the same perspective I was trying to get. I appreciate your help in outlining your process in such detail.

Michael Gerald-Yamasaki
10-04-2010, 12:51 PM
Cheryl,

Greetings. I'm glad the repost was interesting. When you write:

The perspective you were said you were going for, is the same perspective I was trying to get. I appreciate your help in outlining your process in such detail.
... then I know the effort was worthwhile & I'm happy to reply. When you write just:

Thanks, Michael.
I have no idea whether it was of interest or not. Perhaps, you're just being polite. One of those downsides of electronic communication.

Anyway, glad it was interesting ;)

Cheers,

-Michael-

Robert Amoruso
10-04-2010, 07:20 PM
Michael,

You did a good job with the repost and thank you for the detailed explanation. It is greatly appreciated.

Roman Kurywczak
10-10-2010, 12:29 PM
Hey Cheryl,
Michael did a VG job with the repost and it gives you something to work with! I think the foggy mood is well conveyed...you can try a simple contrast layer on the flowers only......see if that works too. This has a great mood and look to it so worth exploring ways to make this one shine even more!

Bob Miller
10-15-2010, 07:08 PM
HI cheryl Worthwhile image and a good question! Lots of good advice...take what you can and run with it! :)