Fog/White-out without affecting subject

[craigirv]

Hey everyone,

Just wondering how people would go about creating an effect like this? I've tried a number of different things but can't get it to look as natural:

Benjamin Hardman Instagram:

Instagram

Thanks!

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi

You could try something like this

1.A mask on the subject

2. An inverted copy darkened with a curve and using the liquefy tool to give a ripple effect

3. A gradient fill layer for a background

4. Some "water ripples" drawn with a soft brush

Dave

[craigirv]

Hey Dave

Think you're absolutely right with that one, thanks for that!

What do you reckon the process is for an image like this, when you're not completely changing the background but still going for the white-out effect?

Instagram

[Trevor.Dennis]

My take.

Whatever way you do it, you'll need to select and separate the subject (hiker) to its own layer.

Copy and filp the subject to form a reflection, and use a layer mask to fade the reflection towards its head.  I used the wind filter once from each side, to add some ripple.

Fill a layer at the top of the stack with white, fade out with a layer mask.  The trick here is having made the gradient, Ctrl click the hiker to load it as a selection, and fill with white, then with a low opacity brush paint over the hiker with black to allow some of the mist shroud the hiker.    You have to keep track of where you are up to doing this, but you can easily start again with the mask.

Also remember that using Foreground to Transparent when laying the gradients, lets you build up the effect.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Another idea, this time using Filter > Camera RAW > fx > DeHaze but moving the slider to the left in order to create haze.

As before, you need to select the subject and from within Select & Mask set the output to New layer with layer mask.

In fact, copy that layer again, or save the selection, because we need it again to reveal some of the haze over the subject.  I did this and then deleted the layer thinking it would be clearer, but I should have left it in the screen shot.

The backgound copy is let some of the original un-hazed foreground show through.

Note that I used DeHaze on the same layer twice. Once at -100%, and then again at about -20% as the first application was too thin.  This has created some blotchy artefacts that I would either paint out, or use the Patch tool on. This is the same layer after using the Patch tool on two of the blotchy areas, but rather that remove them completely, I used Edit > Fade at 50% to restore some of the shadowy texture.

[craigirv]

Thanks Trevor!

[davescm]

For your second image the principle is the same as the first.

This time set the gradient fill as white but the opacity from 0% to 100%

Then use a mask on the gradient to pick out the building

Dave

[davescm]

Whilst sending the last reply - I remembered that I used similar techniques to go from this:

To this:

In this case I used Gaussian blur on a copy of the image and a Hue and Saturation layer to darken and de-saturate the "misty" areas

Dave

[craigirv]

Great stuff, thanks for that!