On misty days what to do?

[dewmuw]

In the UK we get many misty grey days - especially in the summer :lol:

In these situations:

http://www.pbase.com/image/25457915.jpg

What is best to do to maximise the photo? The problem as I see it is that the grey dominates and the colours become drab and pale. Any suggestions?

[Laziferous]

Polarizer maybe? I don't know... I usually just abstain when it looks like that out, which unfortunately, has been pretty often lately. If I do shoot anything, it normally doesn't include the sky.

[dewmuw]

Polarizer maybe? I don't know... I usually just abstain when it looks like that out, which unfortunately, has been pretty often lately. If I do shoot anything, it normally doesn't include the sky.

That's the problem - if I didn't shoot anything like it when the skies are grey I'd seriously have to consider putting the camera away from October to April! :lol:

[Yance]

You can't really make a cloudy sky look sunny, so you will just have to live with it. Photoshop can increase the saturation but only to a limited extent. Long range scenics are boring in my opinion. Try taking a pic with a subject in the foreground and the mountains in the back.

[dewmuw]

You can't really make a cloudy sky look sunny, so you will just have to live with it. Photoshop can increase the saturation but only to a limited extent. Long range scenics are boring in my opinion. Try taking a pic with a subject in the foreground and the mountains in the back.

:cry: I don't think anyone has every described one of my photos as boring before. :cry:

[Scottes]

Actually I don't think that image is boring, but Yance does have a point.

As to misty/hazy days, well you could try a UV filter. Bob Atkins posted this (http://www.photo.net/equipment/filters/) over on Photo.net about UV filters. Great info. Generally speaking, almost every UV filter out there does nothing or almost nothing. So get the right one.

A polarizer can help some, too, but losing 2 stops on a day like that means some long shutter times. Which is usually just fine on a landscape like this.

But even polarizer + UV isn't going to *fix* this - but it may improve the colors and reduce the haze *a bit*

Good luck.

[dewmuw]

Actually I don't think that image is boring, but Yance does have a point.

As to misty/hazy days, well you could try a UV filter. Bob Atkins posted this (http://www.photo.net/equipment/filters/) over on Photo.net about UV filters. Great info. Generally speaking, almost every UV filter out there does nothing or almost nothing. So get the right one.

A polarizer can help some, too, but losing 2 stops on a day like that means some long shutter times. Which is usually just fine on a landscape like this.

But even polarizer + UV isn't going to *fix* this - but it may improve the colors and reduce the haze *a bit*

Good luck.

Thanks that does help a lot and the link was very useful.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Polarizers can be usefull but if it is misty and dark the polarizer will just make your shutter speeds even longer.

Personally I like the look of a misty day shot,. but sometimes the skies end up overpoweringly bright and monotone compared to the rest of the scene,. I think frmaing the shot to exclude as much sky as possible can be helpfull in certain circumstances.

[GPR1]

Where I live (Washington State) gray days and mist are a fact of life as well. Rather than fight them, why not find what's exciting about them? Wishing you could have a shot with the vivid colors and high contrast of a sunny day won't work.

I look for shots with more foreground, and color in the foreground. The mistly light can actually give excellent color saturation in the foreground. Allow the background to get "soft" with the mist. Look for work by other photographers who have effectively shot dramatic or pleasing shots under the same conditions, and try to learn from them.

Greg

[RichardtheSane]

I think what I would do is use an ND grad filter to bring the brigtness of the sky down a bit. Reflected off the water the sky looks darker, capitalise on this to make the image look stormy.

[Laziferous]

One more idea... try to take advantage of the light, by shooting things that would normally require a longer shutter, such as getting a nice "dreamy" effect on a waterfall. It's near impossible on bright days, even with ND filters, and being stopped all the way down. When the light is poor, you can expose the frame longer, capturing the motion, without over exposing the shot.

Go have some fun!

[Leighow]

Well the only good news that I can come up with is "people shots".
I shot my best (and one of the only sets) of people shots 15 years ago at one of my daughter's soccer games. You still need color and composition. Here is an example scanned from a 5 x 7 Fuji film and print and shot with a Minolte SR1 e/w 240mm telephoto. (Yup, I received a purchase offer last year for this particular image but I could not get people releases in time!)

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/2_PHOTO.html

[Bill Lamp]

Use the light to take pictures where you want to limit the contrast and can set up a tripod. I've done some good macro-photography under those conditions in just pre-dawn with shutter speeds (film) of 30 sec. at f32.

Or, shoot in RAW, bracket with the converter software if yours allows that, and use Photoshop layers to partially erase "bad" allowing "good" to show through. If you are from a film background; think of making a multiple exposure print with fancy burning and dodging of the negatives.

Bill

[Wendy Lilygreen]

Never mind the saddos who came up with all that negative crap. It's a good piccy.
In photoshop CS there are a number of new things you can try. Go into Adjustments and at the bottom there filters you can add, there is also an advanced highlight/shadow control, that with the saturation buttons can really liven it up.
Keep up the good work.
Wendy

I have played with your piccy and would send it back if I could only figure out how!

:lol:

[shelbix2020]

....test out your Macro capabilities




edit: Im slow

[dreamer]

firstly GREAT VIEW. The main problem i see here is that the image is blury, its not a good idea to use filters or anything that you physically put infront of the lens since it does increase noise and lowers qulaity.

I dont know what camera you have, but try playing around with the ISO settings and sharpen settings!

If you don't have a sharper setting just use PS.

hops this helps!

[dreamer]

BTW. you can fix in photoshop by increasing contrast. brightness in PS is not such a good idea, use the curves tool!

If you have done all that and nothing works, y don;t you just change the theme? SHarper the image and turn it into B&W. increase constrast and you will get an excellent B&W photo.

your image i think would look great in B&W.

Heres a B&W images i made!

http://www.designers-hub.com/example.jpg

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