Design Photography: When the Fog Rolls In

Nine out of 10 professional photos documenting architecture in the daytime seem to be shot when the sun is shining. Sure, even on sunny days, the elements might give a photographer reason not to shoot, but the ideal is to show a building or landscape in the best light. Sunlight allows materials and forms to stand out and be read more clearly against its backdrop, creating a fairly consistent aesthetic within architectural photography. Therefore it's refreshing to see documentation that embraces other environmental conditions, particularly fog.

Comparing sunny and foggy days, the former is bright, colorful, and well-defined, while the latter is muted, gray (predominantly), and indefinite. Or to put it another way, sunny photos present crystal-clear images, but foggy ones let the imagination fill in the blanks. Fog exists as a layer between our eyes and certain pieces of information: buildings, landscapes, distant vistas.

This ideabook celebrates foggy photos. Here's hoping some of you will embrace the effect this and other environmental conditions have on how a building or landscape is presented. In most places fog is not nearly as prevalent as sunshine, but next time it rolls in, grab your camera and snap some photos of your house for Houzz.