Coping with Forest Fire Smoke

Interior Alaska is entering its sixth week of drought and its fourth weeks of acute forest fire smoke. Until recently, the smoke might blow away for a day, depending on the wind. But there are now large fires at all compass points. And win, of course, aggravates the fires anyway.

Those of you in the West have to cope with similar conditions sometimes. How do you get decent photos in low light, heavily shifted red, with visibility a mile or less?

(I set aside basic problems like breathing, watering eyes and occasional wood ash. I'm just focused on getting something that looks halfway decent is really horrible light.)

great question Jim, I don't have any answers but I hope someone has something to say. I will say that smoke can make for some funky sunsets...but who cares about that, I just care about critters and birds.

Hypothetical Jim, but have you tried dealing with the light via a custom white balance on your camera? We shoot in a lot of weird light, and the first step is always a custom WB. As for limited visibility? I'm getting all too accustomed to a variation on that theme in the Southwest: Hazy skies. When I can't overcome it, my solution is strategic- eliminate the horizon or shoot more intimate landscapes with no sky.

Good suggestion on white balance, but after setting the custom WB using a white card outdoors, the colors are still seriously funky. I assume they are outside of the range of the E-3's adjustment capabilities.

I've also tried substantial adjustments to the red and yellow in PS CS4. I can get rid of the color cast but the effect on the image is pretty bad.

I've had the best luck adjusting color channels in Photoshop using the Selective Color feature under Adjustments, Jim. If I'm anticipating problems in consistent weird lighting and using the Color Balance controls for major "global" adjustments, I'll shoot a MacBeth ColorChecker as a first step in a setting, then use that image later in post processing to determine precisely the offsets from white, black and gray via the eyedropper tool. It's not a perfect solution if the light keeps changing, because you have to recognize the changes, then reshoot the Colorchecker for each change.

You might want to check the articles at Luminous Landscape about white balance, too. I just checked and couldn't find it, but many years ago there was an article about using a gray card rather than white for setting cameras, and there are others on WB. I'm not acquainted with the E-3, so I'm not sure how well using a gray card would work.

Hey again Jim,

It occurred to me that I hadn't passed on my quick-and-dirty "try this first" fix for color balance issues. If there's anything in the photo that' supposed to be white, go to Levels in PS, select the white eyedropper, and click on the white subject in the photo. Sometimes it takes a few trial clicks to select just the right whit object, but when you make the right choice, color correction is instantanious. We used to use this stunt when copying art and other documents. No sweat about florescent or incandescent light. Just click and correct instantly. The same works in nature shooting if you can find that magic white object in the frame. The only real problems occur when there's a color cast that you actually want to retain, such as warm light.

Hi Jim: I haven't had to deal with this problem yet, but it occurs to me that you might try approaching the problem up front by seeing if there's a filter out there that comes close to counteracting it. That might give your camera and post-processing an easier time of handling what's left.

That's an interesting suggestion Dennis. Back in the days of film and before Photoshop we lived and died by the function of our old Minolta color meter, using it to define and assemble sets of gels to color correct, either on the lens or on the light sources themselves. Based on that experience, I'm guessing that you'd need the color meter and an array of gels to encompass the light changes over the course of a day, as well as the changes in the color of the smoke. But it is technically do-able.

From Topeka Kansas I visited with Hank P. via e-mail. Photo trip was cancelled on the advice of serveral in AK.

Hey Hank, has it gotten any better since the first of the month?

We are having Fairbanks weather in KS in August. Lows in mid-50's and highs in the upper 70's. A friend in North Pole says in general when it is warm there it is cool in Kansas.

Jetstream??? Sunspot minimum?? (spaceweather.com)

the fisch

I have even had problems shooting through mist when the autofocus struggles and I have to go to manual. Then of course the image lacks tonal depth and needs to be adjusted etc etc.
I find it a problem and haven't found any solutions.