Simple Capture One Editing for Breathtaking Foggy Night Photos

Foggy nights create a unique and mysterious atmosphere in photography, but editing foggy night photos can be tricky. The fog can make images look flat, and balancing contrast while keeping the mood intact is a challenge. In my latest YouTube video, I walk through my editing process in Capture One to bring out the best in a foggy night shot.

Why Foggy Night Photography is Unique

I’ve always been fascinated by foggy nights. The way the streetlights glow through the mist and the city turns into a cinematic dreamscape is something special. How the fog softens light and obscures details can evoke a dreamlike quality, creating a sense of mystery, nostalgia, or even solitude in an image. Classical Japanese Haiku often depict fog as a veil that softens the boundaries between reality and illusion, reinforcing the idea that nature’s beauty is fleeting.

I shot these images in Hamburg during January, when the cold air from the North Sea collides with the warmer city air, forming a thick layer of fog that softens everything and transforms the city streets into something out of a dream.

The photographic challenge with foggy nights

However beautiful foggy nights are, the fog itself, that makes such a beautiful ambient, can also create challanges in photograpy due to the way light scatters in fog, making photos lack contrast or rendering washed out colors.

This happens due to Rayleigh and Mie scattering, two optical phenomena that occur when light interacts with small particles or water droplets in the atmosphere.

Rayleigh scattering, responsible for the blue color of the sky, occurs when light waves are scattered by particles much smaller than their wavelength. In foggy conditions, however, Mie scattering dominates. This occurs when the water droplets in the fog are similar in size to the wavelengths of visible light, causing light to scatter in multiple directions rather than in a straight path. This diffused light leads to a soft, hazy glow but also reduces the separation between highlights and shadows, making images appear flat and lacking in contrast.

Additionally, the color shift in foggy scenes is often due to the way different wavelengths of light interact with the mist. Warmer tones, like those from streetlights, tend to scatter less and remain more visible, whereas cooler tones can become muted or overpowered. This is why many foggy night photos lean toward a warm, golden hue, even when the scene might have been more neutral in reality.

My Editing Process in Capture One

Editing foggy night photos requires a delicate balance—enhancing details without losing the softness that makes fog so magical. Here are the key adjustments I made in the first image of the train station:

1. Lightning & Color – The initial image was a bit flat, so I needed to bring up the fog:
   • With Curves, I increased the low midtones while adding a subtle faded look.
   • I also increased the saturation to bring up the colors that the fog usually makes less accentuated.
2. Color Grading – To give the scene a more cinematic feel, not just the mere reality:
   • The reds and blues were reduced with Curves to give the scene a greener, cinematic feel
   • Using the Color Balance, I tweaked the midtones into a warm look and not just cold green.
3. Clarity for Details – Using subtle clarity adjustments helped define the shapes without removing the natural softness of the fog.
4. Focusing – Darkening the outer areas helps guiding the viewer’s eye to the center of the photo.
5. Final Touches – I finished by applying some subtle sharpening since sometimes RAW files from Fujifilm developed with Capture One needs it.

Here’s a quick before-and-after comparison:

Final Thoughts

Editing foggy night photos is all about maintaining the atmosphere while enhancing the details that matter. If you’re shooting in foggy conditions, experiment with exposure settings and embrace the natural diffusion of light.