Experiments in Postprocessing {-} Mountains Hiding under Fog

Today’s dramatic change is of the sunset fog rolling in over the Marin Headlands in the San Francisco Bay.

Before and after in the Marin Headlands, Northern California, USA

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The fact that I was able to get so much color and detail out of some very dark shadows is a testament to how much information is stored in a digital RAW file. It’s really no different than a traditional film negative, the darkroom has just gone digital.

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The dark original photograph

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Sunset Fog Over the Marin Headlands
San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Photographed: July 29, 2010

Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: 70-300mm @ 112mm
Exposure: 1/640 second
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 160

My postprocessed photograph of the fog rolling in over the Marin Headlands

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When preparing for this post, I took the before and after versions back into Photoshop and tried to show the dramatic change in a few different ways. Below are three of my favorites.

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A combination of my original and digitally remastered photographs of the Marin Headlands in California, USA

A combination of my original and digitally remastered photographs of the Marin Headlands in California, USA

A combination of my original and digitally remastered photographs of the Marin Headlands in California, USA

Finally, for those curious of how I created the “after” image using Photoshop and Topaz Adjust (a must have for all digital artists), here are my layers…

Photoshop masks and layers used in editing the photograph of the Marin Headlands foggy sunset