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Shooting early morning in fog

MileCreations

MileCreations

So early tomorrow I'm going out for some test shots on a lake for a video I'm shooting soon. The aim is that it will be foggy across the lake and will look kinda epic. When we shoot it'll be on a boat.

Now that I've put this down on paper there is less to discuss than I initially thought.

I was just wondering if we people had any tips for shooting in fog really early morning with a camera, on water?

For the record I wasn't really sure what category I should actually put this...
 
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x2 on protecting your gear from moisture.

In a pinch, you can just use a heavy lawn garbage bag. Toss the whole thing over the rig and cut holes where you need for lens/eyepiece. Tape up most of the bottom and give yourself a 3rd access point for driving the buttons. I have done this with a RED in a 13 hour overnight torrential downpour (on a muddy lakeside no less) and it stayed dry. We did have an umbrella over the whole thing (and the DP) and did all of our lens changes/tech work inside a nearby pop-tent with walls. For heavy fog (like the kind that moves at 25+ mph in the nearby "wine country" here and where I used the same technique to make a ghetto rain cover) something like that should be more than adaquate.

If you are concerned about the lake itself rocking the boat or splashing waves onto the camera, go with something more robust and sealed.

Fog will be a much brighter scene (and with very little contrast) than you initially expect, because the fog is dispersing the light all over the place. Bring whatever filtration you can get your hands on. An ND pack so you can control your stop, a Pola which will give you control of reflection on the water surface and give you back some contrast against the fog if you want it. If you have access to something like a "high contrast" filter or a "coral" filter those could be useful as well. Working fog is a little like working grayscale or B/W. Coral/Amber/Red filtration was used in those days to increase contrast. Same principle. Depending on how early you start you may not need the ND or the Pola, but without them you may find yourself in a total "white-out," depending on your camera's dynamic range.

If you are shooting in RAW, you can leave the filtration flat (ND/polas only) and just adjust the color channels appropriately in post to create the effect of a colored contrast filter. Shooting a compressed format (DSLR et al) I'd just use the glass on the day.
 
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Thanks for that guys!

Just got back, left at 5.30am and it turns out the sun rises (in spring) even earlier than I thought 5.55am. I found a great spot though that was shielded for the sun for a while later. I took advantage of the sun when it came however, and got a few cool shots that I hope will suit for the others involved with the project.

So far I've only seen the videos and photos on the camera preview screen, but ill post some a bit later once I've had a look.

I actually had no problem with moisture, it was actually almost warm, although I was only on land. When we shoot we'll be in boats and that may change + we'll probably go out even earlier
 
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So as promised here is a minute of some quick shots I got, and a few of the photos I took. I've applied no color correction apart from the photo at the end of the video :) Remember it is just location footage so I wasn't trying that hard to make it look good when I was there + it was handheld

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPWgiuVCfAI&feature=youtu.be

IMG_0026.jpg


IMG_0042.jpg
 
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Zensteve said:
Some great-lookin' shots in there :cool:

How heavily are you relying on the fog/mist being there, when you shoot? How predictable is it?
Click to expand...

Thanks, well originally the MAIN part about it was that it would be on a boat on this lake and then the fog/mist was mentioned and so it is sort of became a bonus.

Talking to people who know stuff about when the fog/mist should be there, this morning was a morning that it shouldn't have been there, so other mornings should theoretically be even better :)

If not I think we'll be happy, the guy I'm working with cares more about lights (not actual lights, but colours and stuff like that) so as long as he's happy we're good
 
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