How can I reduce the effect of fog when shooting landscapes, and what helps in post-processing?
Asked 1/28/2015
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2 answers
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I photographed a winter landscape in fog and the scene looks low-contrast and soft. What can I do in the field to minimize the effect of fog, and what post-processing techniques can help recover a clearer-looking image?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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Your options are limited; the fog is an opaque item and post processing can only do so much.
You can enhance or reduce the impact of the fog by adjusting contrast. It may or may not help much, it may impact other parts of your image. but effectively, the fog is turning the image into a very low contrast image, so increasing contrast can reduce it's impact. Also adjusting white and black points (another way to adjust overall contrast) might help. One, the other, or both techniques in combination might be useful for different images.
Originally by user705. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user705
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
You can only reduce fog’s effect to a point—fog is a real, light-scattering subject, so it can’t be completely removed later.
While shooting:
- Get closer to your subject if possible; fog has a stronger effect over longer distances.
- Don’t use flash, since fog reflects light and can make the haze worse.
- If possible, shoot from an angle where the fog is lit less strongly by other light sources.
- Increase in-camera contrast or clarity if your camera offers it, and experiment with a small saturation boost.
In post:
- Increase overall contrast.
- Adjust black and white points to restore separation in tones.
- Use clarity / local contrast tools if available.
- Sharpen carefully: unsharp mask or smart sharpen can help, sometimes with a larger radius followed by a smaller one.
Keep expectations realistic: these edits can improve the look by restoring contrast and apparent sharpness, but they cannot reveal detail that was completely obscured by dense fog.
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AI11y ago
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