January Fog, Mist, and Overcast

[Tom Robbins]

Misty Morning
​

Everything in the Illinois Valley this morning was the color of burnished steel, including the sky. There were occasional windows, or holes, in the misty fog that drifted past and allowed for very slight variations in the shades of gray, but they moved quickly and were too subtle for my 5D MKII's sensor to capture. It was a memorable morning, nonetheless.

This shot consists of three stitched frames from my 90mm TS-e shifted enough to allow a 1:2 aspect ratio. I discovered a "color cast problem" in Photoshop when I got back home, but then realized that it was only because I was trying to create color where it never existed in the first place. Lesson learned: don't try to force color.

 

[John Angulat]

Nice one Tom.
Love the color (or lack thereof).
What the average air temp on a morning such as this?

 

[Valentin Arfire]

hi Tom

I like your chilly picture, the effort to get out there to shoot the images and and share them to us all

I see here the fog and the subtle colors of the vegetation and have to ask a personal question

how can snow be photograph so that its details, texture and consistence may be saved? I have a set of pictures and the limited sensor dynamic was a lousy problem: no details made it to the surface, the vegetation was overexposed and I frustrated

so how snow images are to be taken?

 

[Tom Robbins]

Hi John, thank you for the comment. Oddly enough, the temperature at the time was almost 32 degrees. Light snow was alternating with freezing rain, but the fog and mist were consistently present throughout the day. I think this is the only day this month where the air temperature got anywhere near the freezing point.

Hi Valentin, great question about capturing snow texture and detail. Snow won't have either unless the illuminating light creates shadows of the snow. Direct sunlight (or flash for that matter) that strikes the surface of the snow at an angle will create snow shadows, and hence detail or texture. Diffuse light, such as that seen on cloudy or foggy days, usually does not provide conditions for these shadows. An exception to this is when the diffuse light of a cloudy day comes from one side, such as at the edge of a forest. Snow texture can be seen then, but it will be subtle.

 

[Georg R. Baumann]

shiver.... At first I was puzzled ... is this a frozen and snowed over lake perhaps or is it land? Sound in such weather conditions is special too.

I never had an opportunity to work with a TS lens, would love to try this at some stage.

 

[Tom Robbins]

Georg, good eye! This is the Illinois River, but since it was dammed for navigation - primarily Chicago/Great Lakes to the Mississippi River almost 80 years ago - the river has become basically a series of long skinny lakes. There's still plenty of current, but it is mostly a river in name only.

 

[Jean Henderson]

Hi Tom,

Just wanted to let you know what I especially like about this image. First, the asymmetrical composition. The fact that I can almost feel the texture of the grasses, especially the tops. The mountains (or hills?) in the background, especially their curvaceous nature. The tree, standing tall, a presence that first draws my eye.

Jean