Adding mist in PP

[pdk42]

Has anyone succeeded in adding mist to shots in PP? I sometimes find a touch of mist would work wonders but despite trying a number of things in Photoshop, I can't get anything that looks authentic.

 

[ReD]

Haven't tried this myself but take two images lighten & blur one then collage them as overlays - I'll give it a go

 

[ReD]

Just tried with 3 overlays in soft BW over colour it kind of works but not that well - then I converted all to BW & it works a bit better but not truly misty

 

[ReD]

Fuji MyFinepix Studio has a filter called Haze - it worked a bit better

 

[kyteflyer]

Its the authenticity that is the killer. Most times, it looks fake... darnit.

 

[BillN]

layers

 

[bartjeej]

Some years ago I took this shot...

SAM_1570 by bartjeej, on Flickr

... but when I saw how muddy the mist became in the photo (it was much more dramatic to my eye in real life), I tried bringing in some clarity, which ended up burning away all the mist. Using a fog filter in nik effects made it look ridiculous somehow. I then spent countless hours in Lightroom using localized edits to bring back some fog while maintaining the clarity, all while trying not to make it look ridiculous (to this day I'm not entirely sure I succeeded in my goals, but I do at least like the shot now):

Fog revisited by bartjeej, on Flickr

 

[Luke]

you might try finding a shot of fog or mist (with little else) and using that as a layer. I'm sure there's something in the creative commons you can use. Not sure how well it'll work, but that's my first thought.

 

[ReD]

I used to breathe on the lens but that's Pre - Production

 

[drd1135]

I used to breathe on the lens but that's Pre - Production

Just breathe on the monitor.

 

[tilman]

- A light atmospheric mist around light sources / bright parts of the image can be done with some of the glow filters.
(e.g. "Glamour Glow" from the Google Nik Collection or the "Halation" Glow from Alien Skins 'Exposure')

- If you don't have any of these plugins, you could duplicate your layer in Photoshop, set the duplicate's layer mode to "Screen" and apply a strong Gaussian Blur to it.

- Just lifting/flashing the blacks a bit (for example by using levels) can help too.

- Or pushing the 'Clarity' slider into negative values.


It's best if you constrain the effect to some areas of the image (background, or around lightsources), keeping some of the foreground unaffected, so that you get an atmospheric depth effect.
(Layer masks with a gradient or a soft brush are simple but effective for this)

This works for very light atmos. Not sure how far you'd like to push it?

 

[BillN]

reduce the clarity

 

[pdk42]

Some years ago I took this shot...

SAM_1570 by bartjeej, on Flickr

... but when I saw how muddy the mist became in the photo (it was much more dramatic to my eye in real life), I tried bringing in some clarity, which ended up burning away all the mist. Using a fog filter in nik effects made it look ridiculous somehow. I then spent countless hours in Lightroom using localized edits to bring back some fog while maintaining the clarity, all while trying not to make it look ridiculous (to this day I'm not entirely sure I succeeded in my goals, but I do at least like the shot now):

Fog revisited by bartjeej, on Flickr

I really like the final version of this shot. Such a dramatic difference from the original.