Dealing with fog at concerts?

Any tips to help deal with this and make my photos better/sharper? I was at a concert recently and we were only allowed one song. The entire song there was this weird smoke/haze/fog from the fog machine and it was hanging around head height. Lots of photos are super sharp where there is no fog but anything in the fog is soft. I do not think its my gear as I got great shots of the opening bands without this fog. What could/should I have done different? Thanks.

Nothing you can do much if there was too much apart from getting your photography spot on..........are you using all the focal points? If so, use a single point and try to recompose your photos

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #17507009
Nothing you can do much if there was too much apart from getting your photography spot on..........are you using all the focal points? If so, use a single point and try to recompose your photos

Thanks for the reply. That's what I did. I guess I just need more experience and practice.

I have merely dumped the ones that I really can't edit or no artistic value, I know that taste can change when you get older, but there is a limit to what you can do

It can be disappointing that you can be given only one song to photograph and it's totally ruined, but putting something up, especially when it's not your fault that they put the smoke machine on full blast during the entire set, is better than nothing. I have known that some photographers, including major agency photographers complaining about the lighting, this and that, and they still upped photos to their agency, after all, you're not to blame....just saying

Just realised, do you see my avatar? It's of a group that had their entire 3 songs in smoke, fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to shoot the entire set when they were in a festival

Look for the smoke machine ahead of time; to see if there is one, then prepare. Pre Focus and Lock In Focus, then the smoke won't matter. This limits composition, but is the beginning step of how to deal with it. Don't lock yourself into AF as your only choice. If lighting allows, choose smaller Apertures to increase DOF.

the flying moose wrote in post #17503835
Any tips to help deal with this and make my photos better/sharper? I was at a concert recently and we were only allowed one song. The entire song there was this weird smoke/haze/fog from the fog machine and it was hanging around head height. Lots of photos are super sharp where there is no fog but anything in the fog is soft. I do not think its my gear as I got great shots of the opening bands without this fog. What could/should I have done different? Thanks.

You really can't do anything about it. In post you can use clarity, white balance, highlights, dehaze (in Lightroom CC - it's not in desktop version) and other sliders to help but nothing is going to get rid of smoke in the air.

If you use spot metering switching to evaluative can help with exposure, but that doesn't get rid of smoke either.

The best advice I can give, embrace the smoke. Move around and catch it in light beams that help frame the main subject, use it as a tool in your composition.

Good luck!

I can commiserate

I do a bunch of concert photography, some with fog and smoke machines. The reason why your pictures are soft with the smoke is probably because your camera was focusing on the fog and not the subject within the fog. As far as a solution, manual focus might work better in these conditions because tough to AF I imagine.