The sky was rapidly brightening as I started the walk up the valley to a popular waterfall. I didn’t have any specific plans, but was excited to see there was some fog in patches.
With the sun still behind a hill, the morning was bright enough to handhold the camera and the fog provided a nice soft (but flat) quality to the light. I made my way slowly up the trail but was struggling to find anything interesting despite the fog.
Before long though, the slowly rising trail left the fog behind and I was in shaded forest; everything looked flat and chaotic. I did not expect the conditions to improve further up the hill, so I stopped to think about my next move.
Appling my Golden Rule – I am here to photograph the landscape, not walk it – I decided not to walk to the waterfall and headed back towards the car and the fog. A corollary of my golden rule is that I will almost always head towards where there is a chance of good light.
At this point, as I thought through my next move, I came up with the idea for this newsletter – how I position myself in the landscape to find good light on those classic foggy days in the forest.
In a great photograph, composition and light will be equally important, both contributing different elements to the image. The quality of the light is important in determining contrast (tonal range from brightest to darkest areas), how the eye moves through the image towards the brighter areas, and colour.
As I stood there, in flat, dull light, I wondered how I could use the light to best effect, directing these three factors in the foggy conditions.
Above me the sunlight was beginning to hit the tree canopy. By shooting up into the treetops, I could reach more directional light than was around me at ground level. While not award winning, at least this image has more interest with a greater range between light and dark, a brighter background to draw the eye through the image (aided by the fog), and a lovely warmth to the colours.
After playing around with a range of compositions, I continued down the hill towards the car, the fog thickening as I went. Although fog is useful in creating separation, I often find conditions with thick fog are challenging to create a striking image – the light is too flat.
The image below is a good example of a photograph where the light is not the hero! The indirect light and fog make for flat, dull light, especially facing away from the sun. However, the image doesn’t shy away from the chaos of the forest, rather it embraces the complexity and creates depth through a couple of techniques.
Use of shallow depth of field (f4) results in some tree trunks standing out by being in focus (and I slightly increased contrast in post)
Dirtying the frame with blurred (and slightly darkened) vegetation helping create a “natural” vignette.
Reducing contrast with depth, provided by the fog and depth of field.
A slight brightening of the highlights in the centre of the frame to pull the eye through.
Does it work? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
A much more common way to build contrast and depth is to shoot into the sun. The image below shows the subtle effect when the fog is thick and/or the light source diffuse (for example, when the sun is covered by cloud above the fog). This is still relatively low contrast, but the light is a more important element. This image was taken at f10, so depth of field is not a factor, but dodging and burning helped paint the light to guide the eye.
At this point, the fog was dissipating as the high clouds were clearing and the sun strengthening. I jumped in the car to find more fog – I knew where to go.
One of my favourite roads climbs up the east side of a mountain, receiving the morning sun. I know every tree and fern over this 5 kilometre section and certain sections often have fog even when it is clear elsewhere. It is not busy (at first light) and I regularly drive up and down the mountain, parking (safely) in the top layer of fog. This is often my favourite place to be – balancing the foggy goodness with the right amount of directional light. Although just a snapshot, you can see the dramatic effect of this combination below.
A lot of advice on forest photography will say to reduce contrast by avoiding the sky and shooting in fog or overcast conditions. Other advice will talk about shooting into the sun to increase contrast. I always look for the right balance between softness of indirect light and fog and directional light creating contrast.
Too soft and directionless and the light is dull and flat (not necessarily bad, but it puts a high premium on composition). Too much contrast can lead to the chaos and complexity in forest images – patches of bright light are rarely attractive. However, just the right amount of directional light can bring coherence and depth to an image.
Below are some more examples taken on this morning with different levels of fogginess and strength of directional light. To get these different effects, I needed to know where to place myself in the landscape – where the light would be just right to show off a composition. In many cases, I have already scoped out the composition on previous visits and am just waiting for the right conditions. This knowledge is one of the many benefits of repeatedly returning to the same location.
When you are out in Nature, whether to take photos or just to enjoy the open space, what is your favourite kind of light?
Love these images James; this is my kinda of atmosphere! Thank you for the tips!
Beautiful images, James. I particularly love the first B&W one - wonderful!