Fog—Nature’s Softbox

Article and Images by Bob Adkins

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Cool air and warm water—Warm air and cool water… Either combination often results in fog. Fog forms on ocean beaches, large lakes, small potholes, rivers and streams. Fog is especially prevalent during the spring and fall, but it can form any time of the year and in almost any part of the country, from Central Park Lake in New York City to Farmer Brown’s fish pond in western Oregon, from Miami to Point Barrow.

Fog may be a menace to aviators and mariners, a nuisance to drivers, and useful prop for mystery writers, but fog can be a blessing for photographers. Fog is nature’s very own softbox. When it’s foggy we won’t get vivid color saturation that will knock your socks off, nor will we be able to shoot dramatic stop–fast–action shots. Instead, fog gives us those wonderful, soft, mysteriously moody scenes that draw us back over and over again.

Fog usually forms toward evening and often lasts through the night and into the following morning. Normally we consider early morning or late evening the best time to photograph, the time of “sweet” light, so fog may seem to be a frustration when we’re hoping for the best possible light conditions. However, when you get up in the morning and the fog is so think that you can’t see across the street, don’t put your camera away, am don’t roll over to sleep for an extra hour. Grab your equipment, and make use of nature’s softbox.

A camera body, a lens, a tripod, and a cable release are all that’s necessary. I’ve shot fog shots with everything from a 24 mm f/2.8 wide angle to a 500 mm f/4 super telephoto with a 1.4 tele-extender.

Use your normal slide or print film, which in most cases is probably 100 or 200 ISO. However you might also want to try 400 or even 800 ISO film, or push you normal film a couple of stops. True results will be grainy, but graininess often enhances fog shots. The only real problem is that today’s 400 ISO films are getting so good that grain isn’t that evident any more. If you’re shooting digital, it’s even easier. Set your ISO equivalency to 400, shoot a photo, and see how it looks. Try another at 800 and evaluate your results. This is a perfect time to experiment, and digital shooters can get almost instant feedback from their viewfinder.

Meter carefully. Morning fog often makes the whole scene lighter in tone, especially if the sun is shining above the fog, so when you meter a foggy scene, what happens? Your reflective in–camera meter is calibrated to make things neutral toned, but fog is making the scene lighter than neutral, so we have to…? Right! Add some light by either opening up or dialing in some “+” compensation. The question is “How much should I compensate or open up?” and the answer is “some,” “a tad,” “a skoash,” “TLAR (that looks about right).” Sorry there is no absolute answer to compensating in fog. (Ed. note: Digital users be sure to check your histogram to make sure you haven’t blown out highlight detail.)

You can arrive at a starting or base exposure by several methods. You can meter the scene and compensate, as mentioned above, or you can meter something that is neutral–toned, such as a camera bag, jacket, or nearby green grass or a tree trunk. If a neutral object is correctly exposed, all the surrounding objects, including those shrouded in fog, will be correctly exposed.

You can also meter a standard gray card or the palm of your hand. Most peoples palms are one stop lighter than medium toned, so if you meter your hand, remember to open up one stop. (Your meter always wants to make things medium toned, so to get your palm to be lighter than medium, you have to add light, or open up.)

Light levels may change quickly, as the fog burns off in the morning, or as the sun goes below the horizon in the evening, so re-evaluate your exposures often.

In every case, no matter what method you use to determine your exposure, make sure that you use the same focal length to meter and to shoot. Refocusing changes the focal length of your lens, which in turn changes your exposure values.

Bracketing is particularly valuable in fog, because there is often no “correct” exposure. Our aim is not necessarily to capture an accurate photograph of the scene in front of us: rather we want to produce an “emotional image” that will repeatedly arouse our imagination. A half stop under exposure may well yield a photo just as artistically stimulating and pleasing as a full stop or a stop and a half overexposure.

In fog I lean toward over-exposing, and usually shoot a series as 0 (base exposure), plus a half stop, and plus one stop compensation, but if a scene is especially pleasing, I’ll include another half stop on either end (-¹/2 and +1¹/2). After you’ve gained some experience with fog photography you may find that you consistently like one or two particular patterns, and so can modify or refine your techniques.

So when the fog rolls in and the “sweet light” turns into pea soup, grab your equipment, head out into the murk, and let your creative juices flow. The results will be well worth it.

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