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Photography Question 

Vipul Bhatia
 

How to shoot in smog/haze?


Could someone please help me out with this small problem. I have an Olympus OM-10 camera, and I am interested in photographing euclyptus trees. The only problem is that they are some 15-20 meters tall, and surrounded with buildings. How can I bring out the awe-inspiring beauty of these trees.
Another thing that is bugging me is that the place I live in is always deep in smog/fog/haze. No matter what I do my photos turn out to be flat and dull. How can I overcome that?
Thanx in advance.


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October 21, 2002

 

John A. Lind
  Vipul,
I assume you got an instruction manual for the camera now. I owned an OM-10 for about 20 years.

The secret is lighting and patience. All you are doing with the lens, camera body and film is recording light. Look for specific trees that have direct sunlight on them at least some time during the early part of the morning or late in the day.

Doing this around buildings, especially large ones, is not easy. You know that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the Northern Hemisphere (North America), it's also always in the southern part of the sky, even if only slightly, regardless of time of day. Look for the trees on the east, west and south sides of the buildings. Spend a little time to watch how they are illuminated by sunlight throughout the day.

You may also need to wait until a specific time of year. The sun rises higher in the sky during Summer than it does during Spring and Fall, and it's lowest in the (southern) sky during Winter, even at noon. This means exact light angles change during the year and shadows will fall in slightly different directions. I missed some architectural shots during the Spring and had to wait until early Fall to get similar light angles before leaves turned color and dropped (Summer's light angles cast shadows in the wrong places).

You will undoubtedly also have to be patient and wait for a day with cooperative weather. If the basic problem is smog, the sky is usually clearer during certain seasons, especially for a day or so after a rainstorm clears the air. I've had similar problems with "heat haze" caused by heat and high humidity during the Summer and had to wait for cooler days to shoot landscapes.

Study the daily and seasonal lighting, study the weather and how it affects smog/fog/haze, and be patient for all the right conditions. Most people only "look" at a scene; skilled photographers "see" a scene. They notice small details about lighting and the nature of it. On one occasion I had to wait two years for the right season, weather, and time of day to make a series of photographs at a specific location.

You will see UV filters advertised as cutting "haze" (indeed they are sometimes called Haze filters). The do cut haze slightly, but not by much. They cannot solve heat haze, fog and smog problems. They do cut down the UV content of the light, which will add slight haziness to some films, but it's not a haze you can see with your eyes when making the photograph.

-- John


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October 21, 2002

 
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