Capturing Interesting Photos in Dense Fog
Finding the Right White Balance for Foggy Photos
Finding the perfect white balance for foggy photos can be tricky, but it can make a big difference in the overall look and feel of your image. In this video, I discuss my experience shooting photos in foggy conditions and how I achieved the white balance I wanted for my images.
Gear and Settings
I primarily use a Fujifilm camera for my stills, and I find their film simulations to be a great starting point for editing. In the summer, I typically use Astia Soft, which is a colorful but not overly contrasty film simulation. In the winter, I switch to Velvia, which has more color saturation and contrast to help bring out the muted colors of the season.
For the foggy images in this blog post, I decided to go with something different: Classic Negative. This film simulation desaturates the colors a bit and adds contrast, which gave my foggy photos a nice white look with more contrast in the woods to make the non-foggy parts stand out.
Examples and Editing
I included several examples of photos taken in foggy conditions, along with a brief explanation of how I achieved the desired white balance using Classic Negative. I also discussed a few instances where I used different film simulations or made slight adjustments to the white balance to achieve the look I was going for.
Color Grading
I mentioned that I considered color grading all of the video portion of this video to achieve a similar white balance, but I ultimately decided against it because my action camera is only 8-bit, which can't handle too much color grading before the frames start to fall apart. Additionally, trying to achieve a consistent look across all of the photos would have been a time-consuming and ultimately futile effort.
Conclusion
Finding the right white balance for foggy photos is an important part of the editing process. By experimenting with different film simulations and white balance adjustments, you can achieve the look that you want for your photos.
