Natural phenomena often cause more admiration than man-made. Whatever a person does, everyone will admire the mountains, hurricanes and tsunamis. Admiration, horror and awe. All this is natural, in relation to such majestic and dangerous phenomena. Interest can also be caused by more mundane moments, many would not refuse to find out how fog is formed and whether this natural phenomenon should be feared.
Fight with nature
Man fights with nature throughout his existence. Civilization contrasts itself with chaotic primordial power:
- People tend to love orderliness and constancy.
- From primitive times, it was nature, in all its manifestations, that most of all “spoiled life” for man.
- Struggling with the environment, the first settlers colonized new lands and asserted their power.
- Every year, agrarians engage in a deadly race with nature. Its meaning was to get the largest possible harvest in a short time and feed all who need it.
- Even in ancient times, physicians were faced with the problems of mass epidemics. Their sources were microorganisms, the same elements of wildlife.
Today, people, although quite distanced themselves from nature, conquering it in many areas of their activities, but still, mankind is largely dependent on it. And one cannot yet say that no “sudden turn” performed by Mother Nature will be able to erase our civilization and any memories of it.
Where does the fog come from?
Fog, oddly enough, fog is taken from the air. To do this, depending on the terrain, you will need:
- The presence of a large number of industrial enterprises and automobile transport.
- Special weather conditions.
- Bodies of water, preferably rivers and lakes.
Caused by the influence of exhaust gases and plant emissions, fog is commonly called smog, and it is characteristic of industrial centers. If about 150 years ago he was most often met in England, today the "palm" has moved to South America and China. It just so happened that Europe and the USA are trying to take their production out as far as possible so as not to “enjoy” the smog and other possible consequences.
Weather changes and the presence of water bodies affect the amount of evaporated moisture, which leads to the formation of fog. This variety is less dangerous for people, it practically does not cause exacerbation of chronic bronchitis and new attacks of bronchial asthma. But visibility is still decreasing.
How does the fog appear?
To understand the formation of fog, you need to remember air mass movement:
- Air moves not only horizontally, but also vertically.
- There are two types of masses - cold and heated air.
- Obeying the laws of physics, warm air rises higher, while cold air, on the contrary, descends closer to the surface.
- During such a movement, condensation occurs - evaporation and fixation of microscopic droplets of water in the air.
- Best of all, they are fixed on dust particles, so in industrial areas even ordinary fog occurs earlier. What can I say about smog.
Colossal volumes of air are constantly moving, the laws of physics also apply without change. But fog is a rare phenomenon, sometimes it is forgotten for months. And the secret is simple for maximum effect, a maximum level of humidity is required. In a dry climate, such phenomena occur only at very low temperatures, extremely low.
So that any fog is based on the movement of warm and cold air, contact and a kind of “conflict” between these two environments, ending with the evaporation of moisture into the environment.
How to make fog at home?
Fog can also be created artificially. The question is only in scope and objectives:
A remotely resembling effect is suitable to surprise friends.
One of the special effects to provide a beautiful picture.
The creation process itself can be demonstrated, it will only foster interest.
It is necessary to create the most accurate copy of the natural event, using special machines.
No one will blame if something does not work out or if it does not work out exactly as it should.
They will carefully look at the effect, look for flaws.
At home you will need:
- An empty bottle, preferably a liter. One third filled with hot water.
- A drop of vodka to be added to the water.
- Ice tongs and, in fact, a piece of ice. It will need to be kept at the very neck.
That's the whole simple scheme. Of course, it will not be possible to achieve a thick and long fog, but even such a result will surprise guests. For the same purpose, you can get a special machine, which on the basis of the same principles will produce fog on an industrial scale. But this is an expensive option and bulky equipment. For those who are not looking for easy ways.
The formation of fog in stages
There is nothing secret in the formation of fog, physicists have uncovered the secret of this natural phenomenon centuries ago. This is how atmospheric fog:
- In the atmosphere there is a constant circulation of air.
- Warm and cold masses move, replacing each other.
- During movement, condensation and evaporation of moisture occur.
- Water can also evaporate from the surface of water sources if the ambient temperature is slightly lower than the temperature of the water.
- The droplets are fixed on some surface and remain in the air for some time.
- Delay is observed for several hours, as a rule. At this time, the surface is covered with light haze and visibility is significantly reduced.
Fog can be a test for those who suffer from chronic lung diseases. Most often, problems arise with smog. Reduced visibility increases the risk of accidents, so motorists need to either be extremely careful or limit their stay at the wheel of a vehicle for a couple of hours.
You can live your whole life without knowing how fog is formed. The main thing is to know what hidden dangers this completely innocent, as it might seem at first glance, natural phenomenon can carry in itself.
Manual method
The longest, but at the same time the most effective way is to do everything manually. To do this, we will have to complete the following steps.
- Open any image in Photoshop and do not hesitate for a second to create a new empty layer.
- Make sure your primary color is black. If not, then press D (it will reset all colors to default). Next, take the “Fill” tool and fill the empty layer with black.
- Now go to the menu "Filter" - "Rendering" - "Clouds". As you can see, our picture was closed with some strange clouds. Naturally, we do not need this.
- Next, we simply set the layer's blending mode (naturally where the clouds are) to the “Screen”. This will allow us to remove all the black colors of this layer, leaving only a fog. But it still turned out to be too thick and white, so we will reduce the opacity of the percent to 45 for this case, and there already see for yourself.
- And now let's make sure that the further the fog is from the water, the weaker it is. To do this, create a layer mask on our haze layer.
- Now we select the Gradient tool and see that its color is from black to white. If so, then now we will need to draw this gradient from top to bottom, as shown in the figure below. Thanks to the layer mask, the smoke that is at the top will become almost invisible, and the one that is closer to the water will be thicker.
In principle, this method can be completed. But do not rush to close the article, as below I have two more simple ways for you.
This method can be called a method for lazy people. There is practically nothing to do here, except to download the finished texture with a tyman.
You can type something like “fog png” in any search engine and many different variations of fog on a transparent background will appear in the pictures. Take whichever you like more or several at once. Well, if you do not want to bother, then for you I have prepared such a picture right here.
Then upload our freshly downloaded image directly to Photoshop and put it on top of the layer with our original image. Since the picture is translucent, you will see the fog effect right away. And again, if it seems to you that it is too thick, then just reduce the opacity, and if on the contrary it is too dim, then duplicate.
Well, another way, which can also be called a way for the lazy. Here is a set of brushes with fog, you can download them from here. And now you just need to load the brushes into Photoshop.
Well, then I think that you already understand what needs to be done next. Right. Choose a fog brush, set a suitable size, do not forget to choose a suitable color, for example light gray. Now brush a couple of times over the empty new layer and voila. Congratulations! You just managed to draw a fog! And again, don't forget about opacity. If necessary, reduce it.
Here I showed you three ways and all of them quite qualitatively reproduce this weather phenomenon. But in fact, you can use several at once and combine them, as it will look even cooler. For example, you can create all this according to the first or second method, and then use a brush to go through some places to make it look more realistic.
Well, if you want to know Photoshop from A to Z, then I recommend that you watch this cool video course. All lessons are structured, there is no excess water, and most importantly, everything is told in human language and on real examples.
Well, on this fun note, I am completing my article today, I hope you liked it. Waiting for you again on my blog. Good luck to you. Bye Bye!
