Behind the Lens

4.16Smoke and Fog

When you mention smoke or fog, most people immediately conjure up images of a misty, creepy cemetery at night, fog crawling around the ground like the undead, or of dark, black smoke billowing out of windows of a burning house; generally practical special effects. Fog can be your friend photographically, however, as it adds atmosphere and defines light in a very special way.

The first thing I need to note is the difference between smoke and fog.

Smoke is a chemical process, a changing of one form of matter into another that is usually a byproduct of combustion. When you burn something, the chemical change happening to that ...