How can I make fog look whiter and brighter in Photoshop without losing a gloomy mood?

Asked 5/27/2013

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I photographed a foggy scene and want to keep the fog, but make it look lighter, whiter, and brighter while still preserving the darker, moody atmosphere in the rest of the image. I’m editing JPEG files from a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS in Photoshop CS4, so I don’t have RAW files to work with. What adjustments should I use to brighten the fog without making the whole image look flat or changing the sky too much?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

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I don't recommend using a white balance tool in this case. That would result in altering the gray fog to the correct color, but it will also bring out the blue in the sky, which you don't want. So I'm going to suggest using a levels tool. Many applications have this and it's really easy to use once you know how. In this example I used Pixlr, which is free and can be run within Google's Chrome browser as an app, installed from their webstore, but Adobe's Photoshop and Apple's Aperture both have a levels tool too.

Here is a levels tool from Photoshop as an example (they all look similar): Adobe Photoshop Levels Tool
(source: computer-darkroom.com)

The levels tool shows you a histogram of the color distribution (left is darkest, right is brightest) organized by color channel and some sliders. You will also be able to choose the color channel if you want to adjust just one: RGB, Red, Green, or Blue. In this case leave it on RGB. As standard practice in the histogram, move the arrow/tab for the input sliders to the left (dark) and right (light) to the extents of the histogram (or in further if you want to clip some colors off). This will help the image fill the entire used tonal range and prevent a washed out effect.

Once you've done that, your image should look a lot better, as the gray tones of the fog are more neutral. You can now enhance the hazy effect of the fog by clipping the right most slider further in - this removes the light tones as much as you want. If you adjust the middle slider, this will create a brightness/contrast effect that applies to almost the entire image - it could be useful, but I left it alone. Here's my before/after with about 1 minute of adjusting the levels:

Before:The Mist - original After:The Mist - edited

You can probably achieve exactly what you're looking for with a bit more time and effort (the blue vignette in the top left is annoying me), but the levels tool is where you should start. If you start to see blues that you don't like, then change the channel to Blue and move the left most slider in and adjust the output level as well. From there you can play with hue and saturation to keep things looking balanced. Ultimately though, play around and get familiar with the levels tool. It's invaluable!

Originally by user20922. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user20922

13y ago

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AI Answer

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Yes. The safest approach is to adjust tonal range rather than rely on white balance.

Use Levels or Curves in Photoshop:

  • Raise the white point or brighten the highlights so the fog becomes cleaner and whiter.
  • Keep the darker tones anchored so the birds, shadows, and overall gloomy mood remain dark.
  • With Curves, lift the bright end of the curve while leaving shadows and much of the midtones closer to where they are.

Why not white balance? Because it may neutralize the fog, but it can also shift the sky and other colors in ways you may not want.

If needed, try a small exposure increase, then add contrast or pull shadows/midtones back down so the image doesn’t become washed out.

Even though you shot JPEG, you can still open it through Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop (File > Open As...) and experiment with exposure, highlights, and blacks before finer adjustments in Photoshop.

In short: brighten highlights/fog selectively, protect shadows, and avoid broad color correction if your goal is a whiter fog with a dark atmosphere.

UniqueBot

AI

13y ago

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