Emphasizing fog - how?

[varjag]

Hello,

 

This morning I've tried to shoot some architectural scenes in heavy

fog. All the familiar features looked so unusual and calm, and now I

wonder what could I do to end up with more pronounced fog on my

photos. Should exposure be tweaked from normal in any direction? How

does the film (it was Portra 400BW in this case) registers the fog as

compared to human eye? Some filters which could be useful at that maybe?

[silent1]

I've heard the stain from pyro developers enhances the appearance of fog, making it look smoother instead of grainy (as can be the case with more modern developers, on most films). The same is likely true of Caffenol, though staining developers may show this effect best only when printed, not when scanned (the stain preferentially absorbs blue and UV, which means it has higher density when printing than when scanning with white light, and will lower contrast in heavily stained areas when printed on multi-contrast papers).

[michaelging]

With B&W film, a blue filter makes fog more pronounced. Over exposure

helps as well,I hope this helps.

[awindsor]

The problem is that there is normally little contrast to work with. What looks

impressive to us registers as simply a wall of white on the film. Standard approaches

to increasing contrast help (longer development - higher grade paper) but one

approach I have found successful is to use shadows to add contrast. The shadows are

visible in the fog rather than simply on the ground. Strong sidelighting works

particularly well. Think of many of those pictures of trees taken in mist in the early

morning. Street lighting for urban scenes also works well. You get visible cones of

light.

 

In very heavy fog you may not be able to get any contrast in the fog at all. In this case

expose for the subject and print so that the fog appears white. As long as there are

some interesting billows in front of the subject the brain will register the loss of

contrast and the billows as fog. To get enough contrast in the subject you probably

have to get close.

[philippe_beaudry1]

As for filters, a blue filter will emphasize haze and fog in a picture. You could maybe use a 80b, tungsten to daylight correction filter. The advantage with this solution is that it can be used for both situation(If you work in color, of course). But a dark blue one will accentuate the effect more.

[varjag]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments!

[jim kerr]

The 2 things that comes to my mind are using a #47 or 47B filter. Another would be to use one of the several fog filters available.