Step by step Fog up the Forest

Learn how to create your own woodland mist with a fog machine, a power inverter and your car battery

01 Get a fog machine We need an inexpensive fog machine; you can buy these from around £30. You also need the liquid for it, which costs about £10 and lasts for ages. The machine takes about five minutes to heat the liquid, then spurts out a stream of fog. 02 make it Portable If you don’t want to be restricted by proximity to a mains plug socket, consider getting a power inverter. These turn your car battery into a usable source. Connect directly to the car battery and use an extension cable for extra reach. 03 check the conditions Wait for a still, windless day. Direct sunlight is best, as this results in strong light rays. Set up your camera facing into the bright light – a tripod isn’t essential, but can be useful. Use a tree trunk to obscure the sun from the lens. 04 spray the scene Spray the fog upwind so that it drifts across the scene, and move the position around so that it’s distributed in the foreground and background of the scene. The sun catches the particles in the air and shows up as beautiful shafts. 05 catch some rays It might be too thick, as in this shot. If so, wait for a few seconds for the fog to dissipate and then start shooting. If you want to capture shafts of misty light, compose the shot so there are shadowy areas in the frame – the light rays will show up more clearly. 06 expose for highlights When shooting towards the sun the foreground will naturally be in shadow, so expose for the highlights. Here we’re at 1/6 sec, f/13, ISO100. If you don’t want to shoot in Manual mode, use Av mode, and try fine-tuning brightness with exposure compensation.