Shooting in the Mist

The Great Smoky Mountains are not called Smoky for nothing, Most mornings see a mist hanging in the valleys which is caused by the climate and topography of the land, It makes for some wonderful atmospheric images, When shooting misty/foggy images always expose to the right, Normally +1 or more, The images will look horrible and flat and will need some work in processing to bring detail out that is hidden, You will find that the histogram is very small and bunched in one area and that with a quick adjustment in Levels the detail really pops out and with some added adjustments in curves and saturation your image will be transformed,
Here is an image i took early one morning when looking down in the valley at Cades Cove, This is how the image looked straight out of the camera without any processing at all

 

Its not bad but lacks any contrast and looks very flat
Here is the same image after adjusting the levels and curves

You can see that there is a lot more detail especially in the background
The images above were taken with the D7000 so i expect the processing to be better once i have the ability to process properly in Capture One or Photoshop, There is still a blue/coolness to the early light and maybe an adjustment in the Temp will help transform the image more but it gives you the idea

Heres an image taken just as the sun popped over the hilltops taken with the D3s straight from the camera-no processing

And processed in CS5

Totally transformed from the original and one good reason not to look at the images on the camera screen and to just view the histogram

Dave