How to photograph fog?

tuonno · Nov 30, 2006

now, I understand that this might sound silly but how do you do it? Last night it was VERY foggy in my town... I tried taking a few snaps with EFKE 100 film and pushed it to 400... all the shots were fine mre or less (I was photographing my friends in the city, lots of streetlight) but no fog....

Also, during the day.... how to capture that misty feel?

thanx!

keithwms · Nov 30, 2006

Well, Rayleigh light scattering by water particles is what gives the fog its appearance. Its whitish because all the different colours across the spectrum are scattered. But it turns out that the amount of Rayleigh scattering goes as the inverse of the wavelength to the fourth power, so bluer wavelengths are scattered much much more than redder ones. This is the Tyndall effect that produces our blue sky.

That's why when we use IR film, even on a hazy summer day, we can get stunningly sharp images. But at the other end of the spectrum, if you shoot a typical blue sensitive film, you will have more apparent haze.

I haven't tried photographing fog with the intention of enhancing it, but I think I would try a blue filter and see if you can manipulate the density of the fog that way. I think blue filtering will give you more fog, red will give you less.

Or... you could stick to a more blue sensitive film and avoid the panchromatics.

Also try long exposures... that has a way of building up density in the fogged regions and making them stand out more from the unfogged areas. So that's a good way to go if you are trying to get fog hanging over a river or something like that.

reellis67 · Nov 30, 2006

Using a blue filter *should* emphasize the fog, but I'm not familiar enough with your film to know how much you could expect with which filter. I use a minus blue (yellow #12) filter to cut asmospheric haze and to slightly darken the sky, so it would seem logical to expect a blue filter to emphasize haze (or fog) and lighten the sky.

- Randy

reellis67 · Nov 30, 2006

I just found this info, which was on the web so take it for what it's worth, but it came from a site that I've to be accurate in most all cases...

#47
A Blue filter (tricolor) that lightens the sky and darkens green foliage and reds. The use of a blue filter exaggerates atmospheric effects.

- Randy

DrPablo · Nov 30, 2006

Fog also generally reduces contrast across a scene (unless you're talking about very brightly toplit or backlit fog). So you might be able to enhance this muted effect by pulling a couple stops in development.

tuonno · Nov 30, 2006

thank you! ;-)

Trask · Nov 30, 2006

My most successful technique is that after I take the picture, and before advancing the film, I open the back of the camera and then close it again real quick. That gives the resulting photo a somewhat..foggy...look....well..

vet173 · Nov 30, 2006

DrPablo said:
Fog also generally reduces contrast across a scene (unless you're talking about very brightly toplit or backlit fog). So you might be able to enhance this muted effect by pulling a couple stops in development.

Or you could enhance it the other way if you want a little more punch. Incident reading wit NO shift factor, and overdevelop.

Wyno · Nov 30, 2006

Does this mean that it's just film base plus fog?
Mike :rolleyes:

Earl Dunbar · Nov 30, 2006

Easiest is to use an incident meter for light readings. Develop with a developer that can give long tonal scale. Play with filtration too.

bjorke · Dec 2, 2006

Put the camera inside your coat when you go out.

Open the back just a little.

Close it again.

All the fog you could want!

vet173 · Dec 2, 2006

Wyno said:
Does this mean that it's just film base plus fog?
Mike :rolleyes:

It took me a minute.

Peter De Smidt · Dec 2, 2006

I find the grain doesn't work well with fog. As such, I tend to print small, use fine-grained film, use a fine grain developer, and/or use a larger piece of film. This is especially true since I usually give fog exposures N+2 (or more) development. With fog, there's very little contrast, and so I expose at zone IV and develop the bejesus out the film. That's simply what works for me.

Troy Hamon · Dec 2, 2006

Shooting toward light sources accentuates fog or mist.

smieglitz · Dec 3, 2006

Peter De Smidt said:
...This is especially true since I usually give fog exposures N+2 (or more) development. With fog, there's very little contrast, and so I expose at zone IV and develop the bejesus out the film. ...

Though I have really never shot fog as a subject, I would follow Peter's advice. Foggy scenes are very low in contrast and IIRC, might only have a range of tonal separation of a couple stops. So, lowered placement and extended development would seem to be the rule.

If, for example, you placed say a dark tree trunk in fog on zone II (dark gray that has some tone but just a hint of detail), the lighter fog might only fall around zone V (middle gray). So you'd have the shadow but not the correct highlight. Overdevelopment would move the middle values upward considerably compared to the shadows which might only rise slightly in value. So with a two-stop push (N+2 development) you would probably end up with something like zone II 1/2 for the dark tree trunk (dark gray with slightly more shadow detail) while the fog would reproduce around zone VII (light gray with highlight detail). This happens because exposure has its most pronounced influence on shadows while the effects of development are seen mainly in the lighter tones. Hence the old adage "Expose for the shadows & develop for the highlights."

What I've described here is probably akin to what White, Zakia, and Lorenz refer to as "bi-directional contrast control," in The New Zone System Manual. In this case the procedure couples an underexposure of a couple stops (N-2 exposure for the tree trunks) with overdevelopment of a couple stops (N+2 development for the fog) and visualizes the growth in contrast from the middle zones outward.

The blue filter would probably accentuate the fogginess of the scene but I would think the contrast would be lowered considerably as well, and that is not what I would be chasing in such a scene.

Joe

Roger Hicks · Dec 3, 2006

tuonno said:
now, I understand that this might sound silly but how do you do it? Last night it was VERY foggy in my town... I tried taking a few snaps with EFKE 100 film and pushed it to 400... all the shots were fine mre or less (I was photographing my friends in the city, lots of streetlight) but no fog....

Also, during the day.... how to capture that misty feel?

thanx!

The very few successful fog pics I have taken in the last 40 years -- that is, the ones I am pleased with -- are generously exposed 'chromes for a light, airy feel. In mono, light prints are almost always more successful (in my experience) than dark ones.

Cheers,

R.

keithwms · Dec 4, 2006

I remembered that I had put a fog shot in the galleries here, it is:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

This was taken with hp5+ under sunrise lighting. So Troy is right, light angle definitely plays a big role.

juan · Dec 4, 2006

I agree with Roger - light prints with very little nearing black seem most successful to me.
juan

Earl Dunbar · Dec 4, 2006

I agree that a slow (fine-grain) film is best for fog, with "generous" exposure. Again, using an incident reading helps.

How to photograph fog?

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