088 - How to Deal with Smoky Conditions as a Photographer

 How's it going everybody? Welcome back to a new episode of the Travel and Adventure Photography School podcast. I'm your host, Robert Massey. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to join me today. I'm out in my car, heading out on an adventure on the weekend and driving through some super smoky, super hazy conditions and that got me to thinking about some of the things that us photographers will be encountering fairly routinely now and that's dealing with smoke from forest fires. Right now there's about 900 forest fires burning in Canada. I don't know how many are going on in the states or elsewhere in the world as well. And so we are fairly consistently dealing with smoky and hazy conditions when we wanna be out taking photographs.

That got me to thinking, I'm gonna be dealing with that this weekend and I thought I'd pass along some of the advice and some of the things that I've discovered work really well for me when I'm shooting out with smoke in the air. Especially with us being outdoor and adventure photographers a lot and travel photographers, we're outside.

We can't be inside of a studio and creating things. We are directly in front of that smoke. It directly impacts all of our photos, especially because we are outside shooting all the time.

Let's just talk a little bit about dealing with these smoky conditions. We're gonna address these in four different spots. We're gonna talk about what you can do before the shoot happens, what you can do during the shoot and what you can do for post-processing. And then also some tips for staying safe and healthy while out in smoky conditions. It's not just about being able to capture photographs, it's about making sure everybody is safe, healthy and happy while you were out shooting.

 Oh yeah. And as I say that I'm doing this while I drive. I have no notes and a fully wireless microphone that's just attached to my collar. So I'm a hundred percent still paying attention to the road. Alright, let's get right into this and talk about what you can do during smoky conditions when you need to go out and you need to take photographs or you want to go out and create photographs.

So, before your shoot. Firstly, you need to make sure that the air quality index isn't too bad for whatever your health concerns are for whatever your kind of barrier is there.

And you need to gauge that level of smoke and its impacts on the visibility and impacts on your own health personally. So some people with more lung conditions, more long-term health conditions, might actually be far more impacted by the smoke than other people are.

And sometimes it'll just be a light smoky haze that's going on. Or sometimes you totally lose mountains. There's been days where we can't see Cascade Mountain through the smoke on our deck. Go check that air quality, make sure that it's still aligns with where you feel safe and where you feel good going out. Now, go out, scout your locations. You can reach outdoor spots with potential for clearer skies and interesting compositions, even in smoky conditions. So maybe instead of going to shoot at that location that's 10, 15 minutes away from your house, you might have to drive an hour or two hours to go and shoot.

But it gives you a chance for clear skies, especially if you can do the scouting via webcam, then you don't actually have to drive there and see if it's good. If you can find some webcams and poke around and see where there's the potential for clear skies. You could actually head that way and even if it's not quite clear, if you're in an area that is very densely smoky right now, like I am, we're driving through a lot of very dense smoke that's really obscuring the mountains. You can actually get some really clear skies, just a valley over. I've had that happen before. So, do some wandering around on webcams, asking friends, asking people who live in those areas, if you happen to know somebody who's a valley over how it's looking, what it's feeling like there.

Then that could really help you find a location that's maybe not smoke-free, but at least lower levels of smoke impacting you. And then, you really wanna plan your timing, so opt for shooting during times of day when smoke levels are generally lower.

So that can actually be happening really early mornings. Overnight, I don't know what happens. I'm not a meteorologist, but it does seem like the smoke tends to settle a little bit better and just. Disappears from in the sky. It's not quite as thick, it's not quite as heavy. So it's actually a chance for you to go out and shoot really early, which let's be honest, for a lot of us, that's not a bad thing. Getting out there for sunrise or a little bit before sunrise to be able to shoot without as deep a smoky level in the air.

Alright, and the last thing you wanna do, for before your shoot. Is to communicate with the other people that you're shooting with.

You wanna make sure that they feel safe, that they feel healthy, that they're okay heading out in the smoking conditions. And if it's a client where you're shooting images for them, you wanna make sure that having that smoke in the air and the impact it's gonna have on those photos isn't going to impact the way they see those photos.

If it's something like a wedding, you might not have a choice. It's gotta happen. But if it's something like just a portrait shoot or a family session, or you're creating some adventure photos for somebody, it might not align with their goals.

So, you wanna be open and honest in your communication with them and offer them chance to reschedule based on the weather. Especially if the idea was to show, the big, beautiful landscapes and the mountains and everything like that. You have to use your direction as a professional photographer, your creative vision, to be honest and upfront with them and tell them, this is how it's gonna impact the images.

This is how I think we can overcome those impacts and work with them really well. Or this is how we might not be able to achieve the goals you want because of the smoke that's in the air. So just be honest with them. Communicate with your client if you have one. And see what they say. See if you can work out a balance between you.

All right, so you've prepped before the shoot. What can you actually do during the shoot when it's super, super smoky? The first thing you're gonna notice when it's smokey enough that it's actually affecting the sun quality, the sun's gonna change color a little bit.

Typically when the sun is filtering through smoke, if it's a thin layer, it's gonna feel kind of like the world's in this weird, in-between normal sunlight time and golden hour kind of time, and that's a great opportunity for you to shoot. It's not quite a diffusion layer going on, but it does change that quality of light to look like golden hour.

You still need to be conscious of really harsh shadows, really harsh lighting on people, but it does allow you that slightly golden haze that just feels really nice and warm and inviting in images. If it gets really bad and the sun is, you know, an orange ball in the sky, that can almost give it a kind of an apocalyptic glow.

Maybe that fits for the type of image you're looking for. Maybe that styles out for what you wanna do, but definitely use that change in color to your advantage. One of the other things that smoke can do, depending on how thick it is in the air, is that it can actually create a little bit of a softer light and some more vibrant hues. If you're shooting in a location that's got lots of yellows, oranges and reds, that sun with the smoke filter going through, it can actually really deepen those colors and make them pop and make them really saturated. You might get this chance to get some really fun, interesting colors. Now, obviously, if it's for you, brilliant. Work with whatever's in your creative vision. If it's for a client. You've just gotta work with them.

You've just gotta make sure that they're okay showing off a destination like this or showing off their brand like that, or their family or whatever it is. And just again, be upfront with them about how the smoke is probably gonna change the look and the feel of these images.

Alright, consider using a polarizing filter. I'm a huge advocate of shooting with polarizing filters. Even when you're doing portraits and you're moving quick, you just gotta remember to twist 'em.

They do amazing things for cutting down reflections, building up the saturation and colors in the sky. And when you are shooting in a really hazy environment, a polarizing filter can help cut some of the haze that's in the air.

If you try, it doesn't seem like it's making a difference, pop it off your camera, keep going because it does mean you have an extra step when you're shooting and you have to think about the couple of stops of light that it's blocking off. But if it works, getting rid of some of that smoke in the air before you have to post process can be a huge benefit to you. Alright. Third idea, you really wanna include foreground elements like trees or structures to add context and reduce the impact of that haze. So a lot of the times, even when we're out in smoke, we are always surrounded by it, but 'cause of the way our eyes work, we don't actually typically perceive it being there right in front of us, which is super helpful.

The further away the smoke is, the more dense it can look, the more hazy things can look behind somebody. So start including some of those foreground elements that are within our little clear smoke bubble. Maybe that's a really interesting pattern on some cobblestone that's in front of the people that you're taking photographs of or in front of the building you're taking photographs of. Maybe that's framing the sky off with some branches of a tree to like frame into that building so that the smoke doesn't look like it's there.

It's finding creative ways to really enhance what's going on and to not show the smoke off as much. So a lot of the times, especially in these instances, we wanna lean into Ansel Adams ideology, where it's a lot more about that foreground element and a lot more about the ground itself, rather than including a lot of that sky.

And I know a lot of us get really entranced with having a lot of the sky in there. Thinking about way more foreground elements can be a bit of a change in our creative thinking, but it can really enhance your photography in smoky situations like this.

One of the other cool things about it when you're looking to incorporate some different foreground elements and some different compositional elements is that you could actually start changing the way you think about shooting and starting to think more about looking down and looking really close to you. This is a good chance for you not to look really far away, but to look at what's right in front of you and right at your feet and right by your hands, and try and find those little details and those little elements that you can bring into an image that incorporate the area, then incorporate some of the majesty of the area, and also reduce the visibility of that smoke.

Alright, and the last one, and probably the most important thing that you can do while you're out there during your shoot and how you can use the smoke to your advantage is to create some creative depth. So you can use the atmospheric perspective to your advantage. Sometimes the smoke can cause some amazing layering effects. I know we just drove through a valley in Glacier National Park that the mountains looked like a painting. They were just layered off and they just disappeared into the smoke and it was amazing and beautiful all at once. And the smoke was actually interacting with the shadows and causing these different interplays of blues.

Absolutely stunning imagery that you can create when the smoke is causing these different layering effects and obscuring parts of images and revealing other parts and changing colors, and so use that layering to your advantage, because it can look absolutely spectacular.

Alright, sticking with what's gonna happen during the shoot, but this isn't creative suggestions. This is actually health and safety. I've talked about it a lot in this podcast. You're gonna hear me continuing to talk about it, but I prioritize everyone's health and safety over anything else. I will not put people at undue risk unless they know what they're doing. They're totally on board with it. I'm totally on board with it, as long as everyone's okay and we're taking all the safety precautions that we can. So, smoke is one of those things that is a little bit insidious. And so the first thing that you wanna do is speak to your clients, make sure that they understand the impacts that smoke can have on health.

And think about if it's worth being out in it that day, or if maybe you can reschedule to another day, and hopefully not have as bad smokey conditions. The other thing that you wanna think about is the long-term impacts of health. I basically live outdoors when I'm not at my computer working and being out in smoke like that continuously can actually have quite the adverse impact on your health. If it's just a little thin layer in the air, okay, not bad, but it's been quite thick in the mountains the last couple of days, and it's very thick into the area that we're driving into right now. And so being out in that a lot and continuously can build up in your lungs and cause some very long-term health problems.

So if you're always outside, if you're always out doing things, speak with your healthcare practitioner. Find out what you can do to help mitigate those effects. Find out what you can do to help protect yourself while you're out in it. One of the things that you can do is wear an N 95 mask. I know none of us really wanna think about masking anymore, but smoke is basically just fine particles of ash that are flying through the air.

And when you breathe in, you breathe in those particles into your lungs and they can sit there and they can glom onto things and they can start causing some problems. And so if you wear an N 95 mask, it actually helps minimize the inhalation of those harmful particles, and can really improve your long-term health. So just think about that. Think about maybe throwing a mask on, telling your clients to wear one when you're in between sections of shoots. Be really careful though with the mask lines or if the guy has a beard or something and the way it cuts. It might be a good idea for people's long-term health.

Alright, and then you wanna make sure that when you are out shooting in this, you take plenty of breaks and you have lots of water. You should be basically doubling, your water consumption.

So bring way more water than you're used to bringing even on hikes, which I realize makes our backpacks heavier, but well worth it for you not to run into dehydration issues with anybody. Remind your clients continuously that they need to be drinking water as well.

And just make sure that everybody does relax and when you get the chance to head inside of a space and get out of that smoke, that's maybe what you should be doing as well. Alright. And then just be mindful encourage everyone to monitor their health while you're out shooting conditions like this, if anyone's starting to feel off or a little bit weird or a little bit strange, try to get them out of it.

Just see how everybody's feeling. Take center stage, be the leader on this. Be the one that's taking care of their people's health around you. And I promise you, nobody is going to fault you for wanting to make sure everybody is safe and healthy.

Alright, and now you're into that post-processing process. And so there's four things I tend to look out for when editing from shooting in smoky conditions.

One of the big things that tends to happen is if your people are just a little bit too far away from the camera, if you're using say, a telephoto to help compress the situation in front of you. I find that my focus can miss more frequently just with the haze that's in front of them.

So be very, very careful if you've been shooting with a telephoto that the images are crisp and they're sharp, or they're at a acceptable level of softness in a artistically cool mood, but that they work for you. So be very cognizant of that when you were shooting further away from your couple that your auto focus is more likely to miss.

Now, the first thing that you're gonna notice is your color correction. So if you really like. The smoky and the extra vibrancy that gets added in, that's awesome. But if you're not and you're trying to bring things back to a more neutral tone, you're gonna really have to work with that white balance and actually probably get down into the H S L sliders and start playing with the ones in there as well to bring certain colors out and bring them in to match your style, your stylistic tones, you're gonna really have to do a lot of work of honing in on that color balance.

Now, one of the other things that tends to happen in smoky conditions is everything starts to get a little bit flatter and a little bit grayer.

You're gonna wanna use your curves slider to create more contrast. So you can use the contrast slider as well in Lightroom or wherever it is that you're doing your editing. But I find that using the curve slider just gives me a little bit more control and it's just a better form of contrast being added in.

I'll typically do that and then I'll go and play with the contrast slider just a little bit, just to add a little bit more punch or to take away a little bit. But for the most part, I do almost all of my contrast through the curve slider. And I, I just love the way it feels and I love the way it looks.

It feels a lot more natural, than just throwing around on the contrast slider. So if you haven't played with the curves adjustments, go in there, try it out. Learn everything you can about curves. 'cause it's an incredibly powerful tool, especially when you're shooting in a smoky situation like this.

The other big thing is that when you are editing in one of the ones that has something like a de-haze slider, I know Lightroom has this, I know there's another couple of editing programs that have their own variation on what de-haze is.

But you can actually go in. And select the area that was really smoky and start playing with that de-haze slider and seeing if you start pulling it up, what happens to that smoke And if it pulls the smoke outta the image a little ways. Be really careful about doing this overall, if you have people in the image or anything with softer tones when you get to a certain point, it starts really adding like deep purples and blues to the image and it can really affect, especially skin tones and make people look a little sickly and a little off.

Be very careful with it. And if you can do it via a brush or a mask and just apply it specifically to the areas in the image where you need de-haze to be applied to. But be very cognizant of how it can change the way things look. It's a great tool, but it can be a little bit touchy.

Don't just throw it to a hundred and keep going. Be very cognizant of how you use that slider.

Alright. And the last thing that I tend to look for when I'm editing is clarity and sharpness. Especially in hazy conditions. Sometimes the smoke can add this really cool hazy effect to the mountains in the background and that could be exactly what you want. But what I find is that my subjects typically do lose a little bit of sharpness to them, especially when you're shooting in just a little bit smokier conditions than you would like to.

And so I go back through and I'd be very, diligent about adding back in the right kind of sharpening. Back into my subjects specifically, I try to add a little bit more detail again.

Alright, that's it. Those are my tips for shooting and editing during smokey times. I'm sure that there's a lot more that you can do. Those are just the things that are coming to my mind as I'm driving here through the smoke and hanging out in it, unfortunately. But what I really want you to keep in mind here is there's chances that you don't have to shoot.

I would fully suggest don't. Don't head out in this if you don't need to risk your health, especially if you're going to do a high output activity. Doing high output activities like running, running up a mountain, rock climbing, things like that. When you're in smoky conditions. Just has worse health effects on you.

'cause you're bringing in a lot more air. Your body's trying to process it a lot faster, so it can actually be a lot worse on your body doing high output activities in smoky conditions. So if you don't need to be out there shooting, or you can move a valley over or you can do something like that. Hop away from the smoke as much as possible if you can, if you have to be out in it. Remember to emphasize that safety and health should always be that priority there. And sometimes it is best to postpone shooting when the hazards get extreme. I think we've probably all encountered that at some point in recent history, unfortunately, where the world has looked orange and apocalyptic when you've walked out into it due to some smoky conditions.

So, It's sometimes best just to not go, unfortunately, and I know that's really hard for us as photographers, but when you do wanna head out, there are some fabulous tips that you can use to help keep everybody a little bit safer and still create absolutely wonderful, beautiful, impactful images. So get out there, adapt creatively to that situation, see what that smoke can do to actually enhance your photography, and yeah, take care of yourself while you're out there doing it too.

I wanna keep exploring this big, beautiful world with all y'all around me and creating such inspirational imagery for us. So keep doing it. Keep your health up. Yeah, let's adventure, hopefully in non smoky conditions. Bye for now.