Cobblestone Flats

[LenR]

An autumn capture a few years ago in the Kananaskis Range. Cobblestone Flats, River and mountains shrouded in smoke from forest fires.....

Cobblestone Flats by Len Reeves, on

[Round Tuit]

An autumn capture a few years ago in the Kananaskis Range. Cobblestone Flats, River and mountains shrouded in smoke from forest fires.....

Cobblestone Flats by Len Reeves, on

Hi Len,
I find that photos of foggy or smoky scenes that do not have a definite foreground element that is sharp tend to look too flat. In this case, the hazy background competes with the cobblestones making the eyes flip between the two. You might want to sharpen the stones to provide an initial landing spot for the eyes.

Here is a quick edit to demonstrate a direction that might work.

[C J Southern]

I've always struggled with scenes that have reduced contrast due to smoke, haze, fog, or something artificial; for me it tends to push the image (a little) towards being high key - and then I end up having to raise the black clipping points so it has enough contrast - and then it never quite looks right.

I had a quick play with the levels in your image to increase the contrast - Happy to post it if you'd like me to (and happy not to if you don't!).

[LenR]

Thanks to Andre and Colin for taking the time to comment. Always happy to to see what approach other members may have. In this instance a somewhat higher key image was the intent and was also dictated by the smoky conditions. Increasing the conrast/sharpening of the foreground stones may be beneficial......

[DanK]

Thanks to Andre and Colin for taking the time to comment. Always happy to to see what approach other members may have. In this instance a somewhat higher key image was the intent and was also dictated by the smoky conditions. Increasing the conrast/sharpening of the foreground stones may be beneficial......

I agree. Always tough (for me anyway) to figure out how to handle foggy/smoky scenes, but I agree that a very selective increase in contrast would probably be a plus.

[LenR]

Thanks Dan, as you have no doubt observed from my postings, I enjoy shooting in foggy or similar conditions.
Arriving at a satisfactory balance of contrast etc is sometimes tricky but selective adjustments generally achieve better results......

[C J Southern]

Thanks to Andre and Colin for taking the time to comment. Always happy to to see what approach other members may have. In this instance a somewhat higher key image was the intent and was also dictated by the smoky conditions. Increasing the conrast/sharpening of the foreground stones may be beneficial......

You're very welcome Ken.

Here's my interpretation:



In essence, I've just "pushed and pulled it to get it where I normally shoot" thus it may be well off the mark in terms of your chosen artistic direction. I also experimented with some high-frequency sharpening (well as high a frequency as possible given that it's been significantly down-sampled), but any amount just seemed to make the fine detail "crunchy".

[C J Southern]

Also - for what it's worth - I think this is about the only foggy photo that I ever created that I liked: