Fog photography

[Ed Richards]

As I gaze out on another foggy day, I am curious about techniques for fog photography. What works? Any good pictures to post?

[Alan Davenport]

Timing is everything, I guess. Along with photogenic fog. And keeping your brain engaged while metering; fog is almost always brighter than the scene would be sans fog, so you need to compensate by adding exposure.

[eric black]

I try to err on the side of overexposure and typically add about a stop and a half to the metered reading-keep in mind you likely dont want long exposures- it will end up averaging out and not give as nice an effect.

[alec4444]

I love shooting in fog. The other posters are right, you need to add exposure when shooting in fog. Depending on the type of fog, you may need to have a dry cloth with which to wipe off your lens. (Shooting in a cloud can be pretty damp).

The effects, of course, are phenomenal. I particularly like the effect of fog in color landscapes, as the fog mutes the distant colors but leaves the closer objects untouched. Here's a couple (poorly scanned) contact prints from my medium format camera:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2894584
http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2894598

Cheers!
--A

[photographs42]

I go out in the fog every chance I get. I use the Zone System and a spot meter, so I meter and expose no differently than any other time. Usually, foggy scenes are very low contrast and I don’t like that sort of gloomy look so I raise the contrast and print the fog at a much higher value than it really is. Here are a few examples:

http://www.jeromehawkins.com/chicago.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/missouri_winter_89.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/refuge_lake_reflections.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/refuge_lake_BWA.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/missouri_river_bridge.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/missouri_research.htm
http://www.jeromehawkins.com/north_shore.htm

Jerome

[Brian Vuillemenot]

Also keep in mind that the fog is moving, so if you want to preserve the shape of the fog clouds try to shoot an exposure of less than 1/2 a second. A few examples:

http://www.imagesofenchantment.com/webctchih5.html

http://www.imagesofenchantment.com/webctpa17.html

[Ron Marshall]

What developers have people had success with for fog?

I have never shot fog, but I get enhanced midtone-highlight separation with Rodinal and Pyrocat-HD, so I imagine they would work well.

[Walter Calahan]

I'm always in a fog. Grin.

I have a fog shot on my Carroll County portfolio web site. Image #13. Yes color.

http://www.walterpcalahan.com/Cheers/Carroll%20County.html

[Bill_1856]

We only have half-a-dozen days with fog here in Sarasota, so I await them with eager anticipation. Yesterday and today were two of them. I had already promised a friend to house-sit for these two days while his airconditioner was being repaired. 'Tis the story of my life. C'est la Vie!

[Ed Richards]

Great info and images! I live about 3500 feet from the Mississippi in Southern LA, so I get a lot of fog. I will put the suggestions to work.

[Brian Ellis]

It's certainly not an iron-clad rule but in general I think fog photographs tend to be most effective when you include something close to the camera that's unaffected by the fog and then have other things that recede into the distance rather than having everything off in the distant fog. Take a look at the first two sphotograph listed by photographs42 above and then compare those two with the third to see the differing effects of the two techniques.

[Colin Robertson]

Wnnn Bullock made some beautiful photographs in mist. Sorry I can't direct you straight to them, but have a google (I always feel that he is terribly under-rated).

[Colin Robertson]

Duhh . . . Wynn Bullock, even!

[Mark Sawyer]

mmmm... fogtography!

There's something pretty special about light in the fog; it's so soft and silvery, and the air just literally glows. I love photographing in the fog...

Unfortunately, we don't get much fog here in southern Arizona, and when we do, it tends to be windy and rainy...

But there was this one afternoon last fall...

[Michael Gordon]

Beautiful photographs, Mark!

A recent one from Mojave Preserve, California.http://www.mgordonphotography.com/NPN/mp.jpg

[Capocheny]

Beautiful photographs, Mark!

A recent one from Mojave Preserve, California.http://www.mgordonphotography.com/NPN/mp.jpg

Gorgeous shot Michael! :)

Cheers

[Ted Harris]

Here's another for you .... sorry that the size limits here don't let you see the details in the tree branches and on the barn ... I metered on the barn wall for a midtone, the barn roof and the rocks in the foreground.

[Mark Sawyer]

That's just a lovely, lovely image, Michael! The trace of sepia (or whatever gives the warmer tone) really sets it off nicely, too... Thank you!

[Christopher Perez]

You guys got me all excited about fog photography. It turns out that this very morning things are pretty soupy around town. So I hauled out a camera and took a few images around the corporate campus where I work.

Hey! Look at that, will ya? It's still foggy out there. And I have some more film I can shoot... ah h*ck!... work can wait!... :)

[photographs42]

Beautiful photographs, Mark!

A recent one from Mojave Preserve, California.http://www.mgordonphotography.com/NPN/mp.jpg

Michael,
I love fog images and the Mojave Preserve image you posted is fantastic. I poked around your web site a bit (nice site) and didn’t find anything similar.

My question is: What is the cause of the sepia halo around the branches against the sky? Is this a scanning artifact, a sepia toning thing, a PhotoShop thing or what? Does it appear in a normal print? Did you do it or do something to create it or is it a natural result of your process?

The result is rather eerie and I’m still trying to decide whether I like it or not. I think at the moment I see it as a distraction because it is drawing my attention but the jury is still out.

Jerome

[Harley Goldman]

Michael,

Beautiful shot!!!!!!!!!! I would rank this as one of my favorites of your work.

[David_Senesac]

http://www.davidsenesac.com/images/05-bb1-2.jpg

Over the years I've tried a fair number of images in fog, cloud mist, or rain and fog but only market this one above of dogwood and giant sequoia maybe because I'm rather picky about any images selected for my fine art prints. A low deck of cloud fog that is between the ground and tree top level works best for providing even illumination within dark deep forests like one tends to find in sequoia groves. That way the fog illuminates the inner forest like a lamp from within instead of simply filtering down from above. Fog is of course usually hundreds of feet deep which I find too dim. I vaguely recall exposing this Provia sheet at F10.5? Given some success using that strategy, I'm going to try applying that for capturing some local coastal redwood groves since those local forests are frequently foggy much of the year. ...David