How to shoot the fog of the morn

[03mach1speed]

Originally Posted by Cliffs

I arose early this AM, went out to the backyard and the fog thru the trees was awesome..........


I tried my best to take pics and got nothing....

low iso, long exposure

high iso...

medium iso...

exposure time all over the place...

tripod used...

etc....

I was shooting in RAW, went to full auto - flash off...camera wouldn't fire.

With flash on, I lost the effect...

**************************

I love this new hobby but it can be so dang frustrating.

I am new to the hobby also, and have run into ALL of the same problems you have. Just thought I would throw it out there that through my many mistakes, I have learned some things.... When you went to full auto with flash off, you could try to put the camera in Manual Focus to take the pic with no flash. Hope that helps???

[7000-4life]

the last digital photography magazine i got actually had an whole article about just this exact problem. i'll try to tell you the most important things it mentions..
first of all you must now your camera and normally the fog tricks your light metering. and to get that nice white fog instead of it being white. you have to use the exposure compensation.. and over expose by +1 depending on the camera.
another thing is that your auto focus can have a hard time focusing, so the best focus comes from you manually focusing on your subject, another thing this great article mentions is the use of an graduated ND filter, which depends of the kind of photo you want to take, because the fog wash out the sky, and therefor the graduated ND filter can helt you get some of the details back in the sky and that way making a more interesting sky in your photo. these was the most important things about the article it also mentions how fog is made and what weather conditions is making the fog. so you can look by the weather forecast to see if there is a chance of fog, if you want me to write those things too just tell me hope you can use this help

[Cliffs]

Originally Posted by 7000-4life

the last digital photography magazine i got actually had an whole article about just this exact problem. i'll try to tell you the most important things it mentions..
first of all you must now your camera and normally the fog tricks your light metering. and to get that nice white fog instead of it being white. you have to use the exposure compensation.. and over expose by +1 depending on the camera.
another thing is that your auto focus can have a hard time focusing, so the best focus comes from you manually focusing on your subject, another thing this great article mentions is the use of an graduated ND filter, which depends of the kind of photo you want to take, because the fog wash out the sky, and therefor the graduated ND filter can helt you get some of the details back in the sky and that way making a more interesting sky in your photo. these was the most important things about the article it also mentions how fog is made and what weather conditions is making the fog. so you can look by the weather forecast to see if there is a chance of fog, if you want me to write those things too just tell me hope you can use this help

Thanks for this helpful reply...definitely learning about photography at this great sight.

[navcom]

I think Bryan is right. I believe the problems people face with fog are the same as they are with sunrises or sunsets...composition itself.

As Bryan says, sometimes its the effect the fog has on the surroundings that's interesting, not the fog itself. Fog is really nothing more than the obscuring of light...the effect of which limits visibility of the surroundings.

We all get the urge to snap a photo when we see a really interesting phenomena, such as fog or a beautiful sunset. Unfortunately, a beautiful sunset is just another sunset if that's all that's in the picture. You need something else to draw in the viewer...an interesting foreground, something the colors of the sunset interact with, some symmetry or some lines or textures, etc.

As for settings, fog is much like snow...the camera has a hard time determining what a proper exposure should be since it is trying for 18% gray. When you shoot for "proper" exposure according to your in-camera meter, your snow turns out gray or underexposed.

You may have to over-ride your auto settings by shooting in manual or over-expose by a stop or so.

Here's my last "fog" photo...coincidentally taken this last Saturday morning. We've had fog every morning for the last week!



Pentax K20D
1/60 sec, f/11
ISO 100
260mm

[Fotogk]

shot at iso 200

1/1000 at 5.6 raw

slight temperature movement in color processing and a little exposure bump in post processing.

[Newbi]

I have experianced the best way for me to capture fog is to shoot directly towards the sun. (Not into the sun, may cause flair and damage your lenses) This highlights the fog. Also try a low ISO.

The thing about fog is that it most of the times little bit above ground level. And positioning your camera underneath the fog blancket may also be usefull for composure and effect.

[Japaslavian]

When I shoot in the fog, the histogram is my best friend. Like shooting in the snow, the tough thing is getting a well balanced shot, as opposed to a something overly gray.
When doing high key fog shots like this:

I aim to get things as white as possible without overexposing, so I check my histogram to see how far I've pushed my whites without completely blowing it out.
On darker subjects like this:

I wanted to keep my shadows fairly dark, while exposing the fog nicely. Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well, so I have to do some compensating for the area above the horizon after the fact. Still, I used the histogram to make sure my shadow detail was just right, and worried about the highlights after.
A lot of times, I find that getting the shot absolutely perfect in camera doesn't always work out so well, so just try to get it as close as you can and you will at least have something to work with.

[asmgrisry]

Originally Posted by BryanC

Take this response as opinion and not fact, for I am by no means a 'Fog Photography' expert. Through the years, the images I have seen with fog that I have really liked and thought were interesting seemed to be more about the effect the fog had on the surroundings, and not the fog itself. It's been all different subjects and styles; urban/street scenes to landscapes, and everything in between. But in all of them, the fog didn't seem to be the 'in your face' main subject, but an element of the image.
There was some interesting subject or scene being affected visually by fog. I haven't had the opportunity to take many 'fog' photos, but have managed a few that I have kept because, well, I liked them anyway...lol.

I don't present these as benchmark images for great fog photography, but to share and to help with my opinion.

This was taken in February, in the greater Chicago area, which means Winter. We had a couple of feet of snow on the ground and then we were surprised by 2-3 days of upper 50's, lower 60's temperatures. This makes for a very thick fog! You got wet standing in it. The only time, I believe, I put power poles in an image on purpose. I liked the way they showed the thickness of the fog, each one getting fainter in the distance. The original didn't show much color at all, so I converted to b&w, and bumped the contrast a little. F/7.1--26mm--1/100 shutter--100 ISO.



This one was an early morning shot. Sun was just above the horizon and this is looking northwest. I liked the way it made the trees look. Some hazing in front of the trees, and the thicker stuff mixing in among them. F/5.6--70mm--1/125 shutter--125 ISO.



Again, I don't mean to show these as perfect examples of fog photography, but they're the best I have to help show my opinion about the effects of fog in an image. You should post one or two of yours and let us have a look.

very nice guy.thanks

[Cliffs]

After reading through this thread again, I can say that it really wasn't a 'fog' picture I wanted to capture but the feel of the fog through a gap in the trees off my backyard with the sun rising in the background.

The same effect hasn't happened since...BUT....I have learned a lot just from this thread.