Reflections on Loch Garten

[Donald]

One of the things I always find a challenge in landscape photography is doing justice to mist rising from water in the early morning. It's a sight I love to see, but don't find it easy to get a good image from it. Sometimes it's got to be one of those things that you just stand and watch and don't try to photograph. But this time I tried it.

Be interested to hear your thoughts about the image.

I have another one taken the same morning from a different location that I'm about to start working on. It will have a very different mood, as it's more into the light.


40D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 35mm. ISO400. 1/60s@f5.6

[Steve S]

You need more contrast between the water and the mist, to make it stand out more. Perhaps increasing the brigtness of the mist, with the curves tool.

Bring up the curves tool, and hold the eye dropper over several areas of the fog, and you will see on the curves tool where that point is on the line. Then increase the brightness at that spot, and paint it in, on a layer mask to brighten only the fog. Should make it stand out a little more, against the dark background.


It's a very nice image, but it looks a little dark overall, to me.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm not sure the mist is ever going to be the part of this image that stands out. For me, the strength of this photo is the incredible detail in the trees.

[Cogito]

I have to agree with Mike regarding the mist and the trees..... It might work better in colour....

[Rob Zijlstra]

I think this is a real fine picture. And just because the mist rising from the water is not the main thing to see, I think you did it right. It's one of the elements that 'makes' the pict, and in my eyes done very well!

[Stagecoach]

I would agree that the details of the trees is an area that makes this image.

As for the mist and capturing it would it be the same as capturing smoke where it is advised to have the lighting from the side?

[Donald]

... but it looks a little dark overall, to me.

I think you're right, Steve. I may have gone a bit too far with it.

Thanks for commenting, everyone.

The detail in the trees is thanks to the structure tools in Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2, as well as the quality of the 24-70 f2.8L.

[Wavelength]

Nice one...sometimes simplicity talks......

[Ken Curtis]

Hi Donald. At first I did not think the mist showed well because it was too dark. I downloaded a copy and experimented with it. As I thought about your goal of showing the mist, it seems that there is too much sky and it pulls the eye away. I also noticed the dead tree on the right side of the image and realized that it adds interest. I also know that you have done a lot of square format images in the past. So, I created a square crop of the image where the bottom stayed at the same location, much of the sky was removed and the horizontal position of the crop adjusted so the dead tree was just inside the rightmost 1/3rd. I made no other adjustments, such as contrast. I found that the mist showed better and the shot was more interesting overall. You may not agree. If you want, I can post the cropped image.

[Donald]

If you want, I can post the cropped image.

Ken

Please go ahead. The more ideas that I and others get, the better.

[Tony M]

Hi Donald.

I see texture in the clouds and wondered if it's a result of Silver Efex Pro's processing. I like it, as it gives the photo an authentic B&W feel.

And the photo is very good. I feel the mist is not the main feature, for me it's the trees and clouds.

Tony

[Donald]

I see texture in the clouds and wondered if it's a result of Silver Efex Pro's processing.

Tony - It's very much the end result of using two of the NIK packages. With this one I, firstly, opened it up in Colour Efex Pro 4 and used the 'Detail Extractor' filter. I only applied this to the sky, using Nik's Control Point to define the area to be affected. I find you have to be careful with that filter as it's easy to over-the-top and end up with the very 'over-cooked', over-tonemapped appearance that you get with many applications of HDR processing.

Then I used Silver Efex Pro 2 for the B & W conversion, during which I used the 'Structure' slider to put a bit more 'oomph' into the sky.

[Ken Curtis]

Ken, Please go ahead. The more ideas that I and others get, the better.

OK, here is my crop. No further adjustments made.

[Donald]

Mmmm! That makes a very different picture. I didn't 'see' that one at all. I like it.

[Stagecoach]

Ken,

To me this appears to make the dead tree the main subject of the image, secondary to the scenery?

But what would I know being a bug photographer

[Ken Curtis]

To me this appears to make the dead tree the main subject of the image, secondary to the scenery?

Grahme, you're probably right. In Donald's opening statement, he said he wanted to capture "... mist rising from water in the early morning". Even though the overall look of the image may have changed, the mist does show fairly well. I'm not saying that the crop I presented is better or best, just different and it achieves showing the mist goal.

But then, I just bug photographers.