Middlehurst in the Mist, New Zealand
Fujifilm X-H2, XF55-200mmF3.5-4.8 R LM OIS, f9 @ 1/40 second, ISO 125
Although I'm just back from Middlehurst, this particular image was taken last year and the location is actually next door on Muller's Station. However, on most of our trips to Middlehurst, we have at least one overcast and/or rainy day - which we love.
I'm sure many readers also enjoy walking around some of their favourite locations in the rain - if only they can convince themselves it will be worthwhile to step out of their dry accommodation into otherwise damp and wet surroundings. That's one of the advantages of leading a photography tour - we always say it's worthwhile going out, no matter what the weather looks like!
And it is! And we're not lying. In fact, it's one aspect of travel photography that I really relish, being out in the elements whether it's snow in Patagonia or powerful winds in the Atacama. Isn't that what the landscape is all about?
While the resulting rainy-day photos might not be high colour and full of contrast, you can explore many other approaches to image processing. Currently, my aim is to keep the tones and colour light and airy. Hopefully I'm on the right track with this image.
Interestingly, to get the 'light and airy' feeling, I struggled a little at first. It was one thing to lighten up the image, but the clouds remained a little leaden and dead. I needed them to have more sparkle and the solution was remarkably easy: negative dehaze. By the time I was working on this file, I had already moved out of Lightroom and into Photoshop, so I copied up my adjustments onto a new layer and used the Camera Raw filter to access the dehaze slider. Too much negative dehaze killed the image, but just a little seemed to work a treat. I then added a mask and painted out the orange grass in the foreground and the background mountains right up the top.