Two Foggy Field Shots - Please C&C

redleash

I set out on a wildflower shoot last Sat, heading for a tiny church I'd seen in photos many times. I saw so much along the way that the church was almost an afterthought by the time I got to it. (I will post it later.) I had the chance to get some nice shots of fields in fog (one of my photo bucket list items) but I wasn't sure how to handle the camera settings. Using auto focus was a bad idea b/c the camera kept focusing on the fog. Auto ISO also resulted in 1600 ISO on some shots--Topaz Denoise works great but it's not magic. The sunrise gave me some lovely colors but blown out skies.

I'm fairly happy with the sunrise shot after PP but I'm not sure what to do with the flowers in the foreground--crop a lot out and focus on the sky and fence? As for #2, it was a beautiful scene but I'm not sure this shot works well--does it need more of a pano crop also?

I have several other scenes and perspectives, so if anyone has some tips for PP that I could try on my other fog shots from that day, I'd like to know. I'd really like to know how to properly set up this type of shot, so any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks!
Lauren

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2.

PrevailingConditions

Wow, I really like that first one. The lighting and composition are great. The second is really nice too, but the first gets my vote.

PC

schmoo

These are gorgeous, Lauren! Love the fog, and glad to see you're taking full advantage of this colorful time of year.

redleash

Wow, thanks Schmoo! Maybe they turned out better than I thought they did, even struggling with the fog.

Thanks, PC!

kdog

These are terrific as is, Lauren. I think you're being too hard on yourself. As for auto-iso, that would be a negative. :nah Go for ISO100 or ISO200 and use a tripod. A camera won't focus on fog, it needs a high contrast edge. I would have used a telephone pole on which to focus in both of those shots. Small aperture for long DOF, which looks fine in your shots, btw. Processing shots with fog is tricky, as usual stuff like levels and contrast tend to eliminate fog. So a light touch is called for.

Honestly these look really good. Do you shoot RAW? Personally, I might have tried bringing up the exposure on the flowers in the foreground on the second one a tad so we can see them better. But that would be assuming you'd shot RAW. Trying it with a JPG might just make a mess.

Cheers,
-joel

Eclipsed

Very nice lighting and great shots. If it were me, I would have gone up to shoot over the fence, therefore avoiding the powerlines and the fence. But... That's just me.

I would also crop the road out of the second shot because I think it would improve the pictures composition. Less distractions.

redleash

Hi Joel-

Yes, I did shoot Raw, nearly always. I already lightened the flowers in #2 some but I was afraid of going too far. I can try to bring them up a little bit more. I did use a tripod. The first few fog shots I took that morning were of an oil pumper that I thought would look nice in the fog, but the shots all turned out fuzzy and blurry, which is why I thought the camera was focusing on the wrong thing. I must've done something else for those shots, since these turned out in focus. In the end, I'm happier with these than I would've been with the pumper even if it was crisp.

You are so right about the software eliminating the fog; I learned that very quickly when I started on these.

Thanks for your comments.

Lauren

dlplumer

These are very good Lauren.