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Foggy Photo Effect

Hand it a photograph and it takes the picture again in fog — where contrast falls away by the same fraction every few paces, so the near thing keeps every bit of its own and the far thing is simply gone. Two fields.

bring a photographicsstillphoto-inweatherimage-promptminutes
ExamplesOne photograph in · one foggy exposure out · loss that compounds with distance
in
Country lane
in
City street

We made two examples, from two different photographs: a country lane with the sun low behind the trees and a straight city street. They measure distance in two ways, one in rows of trees and one in blocks, and in both the fog eats the contrast at the same rate.

Near things keep almost all their contrast and their blacks, and the fog takes the rest slowly at first, then steeply. That is why the picture reads as distance rather than a washed-out photo. Beyond the limit you set in the field, the scene is simply gone. A strong light such as the sun turns into a wide, soft glow rather than a disc.

Generated for this library

Input
  Thickness   you can still make out the second row of
              trees, and nothing beyond it
  Fog colour  a warm grey, brighter toward the low sun
              behind the trees on the right
  Photograph  lane.png (1254 x 1254)

Returned   1 image · 1:1 · the same lane in fog

near       the hedge and the near road keep their
           blacks - 82% of the contrast they had
falloff    compounding rather than even: 0.82 near,
           0.78 at the middle trees, 0.33 at the far
           end of the lane
limit      past the second row of trees the lane is
           gone rather than faint
colour     warm grey, and the low sun is a wide soft
           glow rather than a disc
words      none, in any script
SKILL.mdthe whole thing, as you would paste it© vibary.ai

You fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.

  1. 1How thick the fog is, said as the furthest thing you can still make out
  2. 2The fog's own colour, and where the light is coming from

Foggy Photo Effect

What this makes

Hand it a photograph and it takes the picture again in fog — where contrast falls away by the same fraction every few paces, so the near thing keeps every bit of its own and the far thing is simply gone. Two fields.

The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.

How to use it

  1. Copy the whole template with the button above.
  2. Attach the photograph and paste the template in the same message.
  3. Replace the two FIELDS lines. Set the limit by naming the last thing that should still be visible.
  4. Check the nearest object first. If it has lost its blacks, the run laid a haze over the whole picture instead of putting air between things.
  5. Then check the middle distance. The loss should be visibly faster further back, not a smooth even wash.

What you swap

How thick the fog is, said as the furthest thing you can still make out
you can still make out the second row of trees, and nothing beyond it
The fog's own colour, and where the light is coming from
a warm grey, brighter toward the low sun behind the trees on the right

Before it runs

  • A photograph, attached to the message, with distance in it. Fog is a function of how far away things are, and a picture with everything at one distance comes back merely dimmer.
  • Something close to the camera. Without a near thing at full contrast there is nothing for the fade to be measured against, and the result looks washed out rather than deep.
  • A limit you can name. 'Thick fog' is a mood; 'you can still make out the second row of trees' is a distance the run can work to.
  • Acceptance of losing the background completely. Whatever is past the limit is not faint — it is not there.

When to reach for it

When a picture needs air and depth without anything being added to it: a cover, a title card, a poster, a print. Templates in this genre ask for atmospheric fog and hand back a photograph with a white haze laid evenly over it, which flattens the near things and the far things by exactly the same amount.

What changes

  • One photograph in, one foggy exposure out — same place, same hour, air you can see.
  • Contrast falls by a fixed fraction for every few paces of distance, so the loss compounds rather than spreading evenly.
  • The nearest thing keeps its full range, including its blacks, which is what makes the rest read as far away.
  • Everything fades toward one colour — the fog's, not white — and edges dissolve rather than blurring.
  • One image, no haze overlay, no glow, no border.

Pairs with