Fog effects add additional depth to images, making them more representative. This is especially good for the product photo as it gets a dramatic, eye-catching visual. Whether it’s jewelry or furniture campaigns, fog introduces depth, softness, and mood that elevate brand perception.
In modern e-commerce photo production, images often have clean or transparent background layouts, and adding controlled fog can create a premium look without cluttering the composition. In this guide, I’ll mention ways that can be used by you, or any professional editor or photographer, to add fog in product photos.
Why Use Fog and Smoke in Product Photography
Fog is considered a versatile element that complements light in ways solid props can’t. It adds realism and atmosphere to a scene without losing focus on the product.
Creating Mood, Atmosphere, and Depth
The fog effect is known for softening harsh light and producing glowing highlights around edges; this further gives the product photo a cinematic quality. Depth is another key advantage. Even with minimal props, fog layers create foreground and background separation.
Products That Benefit Most from Fog Effects
Various products benefit from fog effects. This includes:
- Jewelry
- Furniture
- Watches
- Beverages
- Perfumes/Cosmetics
- Shoes & Fashion Accessories
Also Read: Ghost Mannequin vs Flat Lay
How Fog Enhances Visual Storytelling
Fog in advertising enhances brand storytelling by relating to emotion and surroundings without the need for props. For example, mist around a bottle of perfume shows elegance. A cool haze above a drink indicates freshness.
Lastly, cigarette smoke near a piece of furniture creates a sense of comfort. The addition of these atmospheric elements to product photography adds an emotional connection to branded e-commerce visuals, while maintaining image clarity and detail.
Practical Ways to Add Real Fog During a Photoshoot
Now, let’s take a look at some practical yet easy ways to give your photos that cinematic touch. This includes:
Using Dry Ice for Thick Fog Effects
When dry ice is used, it generates a thick, flowing fog that can create a memorable scene. When it comes into contact with warm water, dry ice releases its vapor, creating a large, dense amount of vaporized water that creates a very dramatic display across the surface.
Such displays are often seen in product photography (especially premium jewelry and beverages), as well as being a useful way to create an atmosphere of luxury. The vapor generated by the use of dry ice is very low; therefore, it can assist in framing the product without interfering with its visual appearance.
Creating Colored Atmosphere with Smoke Bombs
Smoke bombs create bright, colorful fog that has mostly been used in creative forms of advertising. They can be particularly effective in product and fashion accessory photography, where the use of color enhances the brand image.
When using smoke as an effect, positioning colored smoke behind the item helps maintain the clarity of the focal point while adding energy to the background. The color balance for the colored smoke may also be adjusted in post-production to match the company’s brand palette.
Using Fog Machines for Subtle Haze
A fog machine is probably one of the simplest way to add fog to product images. Simply get the machine, which can be rented or purchased, and use it during the photoshoot of the product. It can produce light or dense smoke based on your needs. Apart from that, some fog machines can produce colorful fog.
Fish Tank Fog Technique with Evaporated Milk
Using evaporated milk mixed with water is a creative way to create fog-like effects for photographing and compositing items in foggy glass containers. This is a controlled way of creating a cloudy effect in macrophotography, product photography, or behind items that you are photographing or compositing together.
Since you can isolate this effect very well with the lighting, there are many different ways to light it and achieve an even, soft gradient. The texture can also be blended into product scenes very easily when editing photographs.
Quick Mist Effects with Canned Fog
Aerosol fog viscosity can be good for doing tabletop photography, as its lightweight and fast-misting nature means it will only take a few minutes to spray a single product. Small e-commerce projects are especially suited to aerosol fog because of their limited number of products and storage available on-site.
It’s easy to create soft foggy backgrounds or edges around a product when you spray it in small bursts before, after, or during shooting. Because the fog dissipates quickly from an aerosol can, you may want to do that more than once if the ambient light is particularly bright.
Use Photoshop or Lightroom
Professional photo editors utilize digital fog overlays to refine and standardize the look of a product. Photoshop can create and blend realistic-looking fog through the use of overlays, brush techniques, and masks that preserve the detail of the product (especially jewelry) being photographed.
In Lightroom, you can use localized shading to create subtle fog. After the image is created, you can also add fog onto a transparent background for use in e-commerce and marketing images where you want a consistent look.
Also read- How to Make a Transparent Background
The Easiest Method: Let Professionals Add it Digitally
Setting up dry ice, managing smoke bombs, and renting fog machines can be messy, expensive, and unpredictable. The most cost-effective way to get perfect, controlled fog is to shoot your product on a clean background and have it added in post-production. At Visuals Clipping, our expert retouchers can seamlessly blend digital fog into your images.
Conclusion
Fog adds a new depth to product photos and makes them more visually appealing. It could simply be obtained with dry ice, a fog machine, or editing by using software like Photoshop. In the current e-commerce photo production, fog works as a storyteller without clutter, making products from jewelry to furniture feel luxurious and engaging.
FAQ’s
Q1. Does fog look good in product photos?
Ans:Yes, fog makes product photos more visually appealing and adds a new layer of depth to them. It enhances the overall image in which the product stands out.
Q2. How to add a foggy effect in photos?
Ans:Various ways can be used to add a foggy effect in images, including using dry ice, smoke bombs, a fog machine, or editing manually in Photoshop.
Q3. Which products benefit from the fog effect?
Ans:Products like furniture, jewelry, perfumes, beverages, etc., benefit heavily from fog effects as they stand out among their competitors.
