Through the Mist V2
by Josiah Launstein
Hi everyone! My dad and I spent some time reprocessing this image after so many of you suggested it was a little dark when I posted it earlier. We both like this version a lot better so thank you for suggesting that!
In case you missed it before, here's the story.
This picture was taken in British Columbia with my dad and my sister and another photographer we were out with. We were photographing wood ducks and green winged teals at dawn when I spotted these geese flying through the mist across the lake.
I waited for the geese to come into the open so you could see them a bit better and then I got this shot. We had to crop a little bit off the top to get rid of some power lines but otherwise this is full frame.
Thank you for looking! Please look at the LARGER version too!
Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300mm f/4D IF-ED with TC-14EII teleconverter
ISO 360
1/640sec @ f/7.1
-1.0 EV
tripod mounted
Dad's processing notes:
originally processed on the laptop while traveling using ACR and PS CC2014
additional work done on calibrated system in PS CC2014 with selective curves to brighten the fog (mist) as suggested, light dodging and usual sharpening
PS Thanks again for the encouragement to lighten this up a touch...I'm much happier with the results all around.
Comments
3 commentsI'm glad you and your Dad took another shot at processing this; and it's good that your Dad explained about the dark, shady forest behind the fog in the first post. If you both are happy with this image, that's the most important thing. I do think this is more like most people would think of geese flying through the fog in the morning, probably because our brains often try to make up for very dim scenes -- kind of like exposure compensation.
Contrast is also extremely important in trying to depict foggy scenes, and it may be even easier to increase or decrease the "fogginess" in post-processing -- and maybe even in our memories -- than it is to adjust brigthness. For instance, if you saw the dark forest behind the fog, is it as apparent in the photo as it was in person? Did the camera do a good job of recording the forest through the fog, or do you need to "help" it in post-processing by adjusting the black level? To make it even more complicated, two different people could have different memories of the same scene, and other people who were not even there may have their own ideas of how it "should" look because they have memories of similar scenes. I just mention this to explain why some people might expect something different from your photograph. You are lucky that you have two (or more) people who actually witnessed this lovely sight, so you can use all your memories to agree on "getting it right." That's more important than the opinions of people who weren't there.