Smoke or Fog in the Air

August 21st, 2018
There is a lot of smoke in the air in my part of North America right now. I've noticed that taking pictures in the smoke or fog is very different. It confuses my camera when when I let it do the thinking. Today I experimented with using the manual settings on my camera to get a better picture of what things looked like. I would love it if you all could share some pictures you've taken in the fog or smoke and write a little bit about what you did to get your picture. Even if you didn't play around with the settings, I think it would still be cool to see your pictures.

Thanks!
August 21st, 2018
Here are the two pictures I took today (the boat shot is a filler)





For the first one I forgot to lower my ISO and had it set at 400, but I did put my aperture all the way up to F/14 and my shutter to 10/2500. For the second one I turned the ISO down to 100, put the aperture down a bit to F/11, and had the shutter at 10/6400. That was more like how it looked to my naked eye. A bit darker.
August 21st, 2018
Also using a low ISO for those two pictures:



August 21st, 2018
August 21st, 2018
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August 21st, 2018
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I live in China, so air pollution can be quite a big problem. When I first moved here I didn't really know how it would affect photos, so that's been a bit of a learning curve. I found I have to increase the contrast more to get any definition and a lot of things look soft and out of focus. I often have to overexpose as well, as otherwise everything looks very grey and dull.
This is a selection of photos over the past few months




August 21st, 2018
There is a lot of humidity in Alabama especially during the summer and early fall. I discovered some time ago it affects the clarity of my photos and had never considered I might be abler to compensate for it in some way. I may try your suggestions
August 21st, 2018
The Morning sun from the Key Peninsula

August 21st, 2018
@stephomy The air quality is unhealthy today and tomorrow in the PNW. This air keps me inside but I still deal the effects of the air (cough, bloody nose). Take care of yourself in this air.
August 21st, 2018
@vincent24 That's way cool how you can see the line where the fog begins on those shots. I like them.

@joemuli Wow, I really liked the way you composed those shots. Especially the one with the first one.

@blueace Cool. I looked you up on a map. What made you decide to live in Xuzhou of all cities? I love the way the river looks in your pictures. I was debating yesterday on whether to increase the contrast on my pictures. I like getting more detail, but I also wanted to highlight the smokiness.

@grammyn Whoa yeah. I can see that. Let me know if any of them work for you, or if you figures something else out.

@byrdlip That's cool that you were able to get the color. It seems like all my pictures of the sun are less red than it looks to me. I tried playing around with the white balance to get a picture of how red it really is, but the sun is so bright.

@chapjohn Yikes, I hope it doesn't keep affecting you so badly. Thanks for the concern. After yesterday, I decided to try an minimize my time outside. I did still ride my bike to work today, but it's only a ten minute commute, and I did my best to take it easy so I wasn't breathing heavy. Still I feel like I smoked a pack of cigarettes. I hope the story in the
Seattle Times today about it not having any long term effects on healthy people is true.
August 22nd, 2018
i love shooting thru mist and fog and will pretty much drop anything / get up at any time to grab the camera when the atmospheric conditions are amenable... it really is too bad though that those conditions are presenting themselves as a result of all the wildfires that are burning... so much destruction and loss :(

to be honest, i don't really know what settings i tend to choose... i do think i've often found a need to over-expose in order to get some decent light... yes, the contrast is often off, but then, i tend to like those results :)







August 22nd, 2018
@northy Whoa, did you use any filters on that last shot? I looked at the info and it says you used a 6 second shutter speed. It's really pretty.
August 22nd, 2018
@stephomy tx! this was from a couple years ago and i can't recall... i doubt it though... other than perhaps the circular polarizer... i do have an ND filter, but i don't think i would have used it for this... the image was taken quite early in the morning at F/22 and it would have been overcast... but really, i couldn't swear to it at this pint...
August 22nd, 2018
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@stephomy I got offered a job here, otherwise I never would have even heard of the place :)
I like increasing the contrast to get back some detail and clarity in the foreground but still being able to see some smokiness in the background, as with most things in photography it's a case of playing around with settings and editing to find what you like
August 22nd, 2018
@stephomy A perpetual sunrise/sunset colour all day
August 22nd, 2018
Across Orange County (California) we saw the smoke from our nearest fire rising straight up and were thankful for no breezes (good news for the firemen!)



The following day the winds had come up and blew the dense smoke across the county to the ocean leaving a very clear demarcation. As we were going to the beach location for dinner, I brought along the camera and posted this following group to show the changes in the day



And, in need of some daily photos, I returned to that amazing sunset to post another photo of it. None of the destruction are worth the photos, but once underway, it would be a shame to ignore them...



August 22nd, 2018
@Weezilou that picture of the smoke rising is really interesting to see. I love how big the sun looks in that last picture. It looks much smaller up here in Seattle.
August 23rd, 2018
@stephomy We, too, were shocked when we saw it. This freeway is only 3 miles from our home, but being wide open, we could get a good view. And yes, the sun did look crazy-huge when setting, and all along the pier, people had their cell phones out taking pictures! (Our neighbor, with us for dinner, did the same...and then asked if he could have copies of my pictures!)
September 29th, 2019
Hey there. In NYC there are always vents releasing steam from underground. They make for some good photo opportunities. I usually use a slower shutter speed if possible to create a more misty effect on the steam.

September 29th, 2019
@shomarimason Cool. That makes sense. Kind of how people use the slower shutter speed to make water have a silky look.
September 29th, 2019
@stephomy exactly. Figure out how you want the smoke to look and the what the main subject is doing and adjust your settings accordingly.
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