This image is one of the many foggy scenes captured recently in Vermont & New Hampshire. Ed McGuirk and I drove to this this valley after our plan “A” morning sunrise turned out to be so-so with clear a blue cloudless sky. We decided to drive down the mountain and look for fog and scout other opportunities. We found this mountainside in a a valley and decided to wait for nearly and hour for the fog to burn off enough to shoot. Our patience was rewarded when the veil lifted and this wonderful light and great variety of shapes and colors presented itself. I love the painterly feel that this light and fog provided.
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
Single image, F13, ISO200, 1/80s, 105mm
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This is beautiful. Soft but still colorful. I think you did a good job with the spacing and placement of the trees. I really love this photo. Glad you had the patience to get it.
Very nice foggy image, Alan! I was up in VT October 6-8, and had some good fog as well. I particularly like the subtle light on the trees, and the structure of the birches throughout the image.
I think that the bottom could use a little more room at the bottom depending on what’s there, or alternately, a small crop to remove the small bits of shrubbery that poke into the image.
@Diane_Miller and @Craig_Moreau , below the shrubs is a vibrant green weed and grass field that really detracted from the forest look, so no more room unfortunately. I will look at cloning the few bushes out of the bottom. I feel a further crop off of the bottom of a few prominent tree trunks will also detract from the scene. Thanks for your suggestions.
The processing looks great here Alan, you achieved just the right level of soft glow in the fog. I also like that your WB keeps the fog slightly cool, while allowing the warmth of the foliage to come through. The interesting shapes of the fir trees added a lot interest to this scene.
Having shot this scene at the same time as Alan, I can also attest that adding more at the bottom introduces a lot of distracting issues. I think this image presented makes a good compromise in that regard.
I think the fir tree in the ULC has a lot of visual weight. It might be interesting to try flipping this image horizontally. When that tree moves to the URC, I think it helps improve the left to right flow of the image. Just a subjective opinion…
What incredible light. You guys sure hit the honey pot with this outing. I see suggestions to add more to the bottom. I thought that a crop of the top would be good - small one. I also felt the image was a bit bottom heavy. By raising the shadows I tried to deal with that. See what you think.
@Ed_McGuirk thanks for the comments and the horizontal flipping suggestion. I do like the idea and will give it a try.
@Igor_Doncov I appreciate the rework and your helpful comments. Yes we were very fortunate to have this really special light.
The crop from the top is minimal and I do like it, but then I feel like I would crop a touch from the left side as well. Raising the shadows does help with the top to bottom balance, and I also think it lifts the mood a bit. I like it. It is interesting for me to see how a relatively minor shadow edit in a fog image really effects the mood. It’s one of the reasons I was so excited to shoot in those conditions.
