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When you start to go down the rabbit hole of atmospheric perspective, there are many different image effects, knowledge of which many of us find useful.

Gabriel Guerrero Caroca, a mysterious Instagram user, unveils, on his social media, a dreamy and monochrome universe. Misty landscapes, lonely portraits and str

Below is a landscape of some hills. What do you notice about the color of the hills as they get farther away? What do you notice about the value (how light or dark the hills are)? Does the value and color change? Let's talk about the color first. Why do the hills in the distance appear bluer? Are they really bluish gray? No. If you were to hike over to the hills in the distance they would be just as green as the ones in the foreground. So what is going on? Now let's talk about value. The word 'value' means how light or dark something is. In order to make it easier for you to look at the value I have reproduced the photograph in gray scale. As you can see, the hills appear to fade into the distance. They get lighter as they get farther away. Why do they do that? Gray scale photograph This picture clearly shows how objects fade in the distance. The hills in the background appear lighter in value. Let's look at some other landscape photographs now In all of the above photographs, the background appears to fade off into the distance. The farther away something is the lighter the value and the bluer the color. This phenomenon is known as 'Atmospheric Perspective'. Things appear to fade off into the distance because of dust, humidity and air pollution in the atmosphere. So, what is causing the mountains in the distance to appear blue? Let's look at another photograph to help us answer this question. This photo is a bit different from the others... I took this picture on an overcast day, right before a rain storm. It was so cloudy that I could not see the sky at all, The mountains across the lake still appear to be fading but they don't have much blue in them. Why not? The particles in the atmosphere reflect the blue of the sky, causing the distant mountains to appear grayish blue. When there is no blue sky visible you won't see as much blue in the distance. Other atmospheric variables: If the air is misty or there is low lying fog, atmospheric perspective (objects fading off into the distance) will become more noticeable. Rain or snow may also magnify this effect. Twilight on the Quileute Indian Reservation, Near Forks, Washington Twilight on the Quileute Indian Reservation, Near Forks, Washington Twilight on the Quileute Indian Reservation, Near Forks, Washington Fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco California Fog rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, California Pelicans, Malibu California Santa Monica Mountains, California Santa Monica Mountains, California Los Angeles, California as seen from Griffith Park Below is a collection of my photographs showing atmospheric perspective. In sunshine or rain, on foggy and clear days, in broad daylight, at sunset and at twilight, the phenomenon of landscape features fading off into the distance and reflecting the color of the sky remains the same. Advancing and receding color: Please read my post 'Color theory 101' before trying this exercise. Colors in the foreground of a painting tend to look brighter. Colors in the background tend to look washed out and duller. When we talk about how bright or dull a color is, we are referring to it's intensity. If you accidentally paint a bold, bright color in the background of a landscape painting you will inadvertently flatten your image and make your artwork look less realistic. So, how do you change a color's intensity? How do you dull down a green so that it looks 'right' in the middle ground or background? By adding it's complement or adding white or doing both. So, if you have a green hill and you want to make it look far away, try adding a bit of red to it. It should still look green but, with a tiny bit of red, the green will not be as bright. As you paint the colors in the background, try gradually adding white so the colors dull down more and appear to fade. Add a tiny bit of blue (because of atmopheric perspective) to this mix the farther away the mountains are. Refer to the sample below to help you: If you are using transparent watercolors, use water instead of white to lighten your colors. If you add a tiny bit of black to some water and then mix it with the background colors you can make your colors appear to fade as they get farther away. The Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel The Elder (1525-1569) employed atmospheric perspective to make his paintings come to life. Many of his paintings are hanging in the Kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna. Here are a few of his paintings: The Tower of Babel Hunters in the Snow To learn more about the painting Hunters in the Snow, watch this Smart History video by the Kahn Academy: Peasants Dancing In each of these paintings Bruegel was careful to dull down the colors in the background. The objects in the background are lighter in hue and appear to fade. They become grayer in the distance. He also used less detail when depicting distant objects. STUDENT ART GALLERY Below are landscape paintings by a few of my students Landscape painting by a 5th grade student Landscape painting by an 8th grader For more information on landscape painting please see my post ARTIST'S POINT DECONSTRUCTED. You should also look at the paintings of Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902). They painted landscapes of the American West. You can find many examples of atmospheric perspective in their paintings. Click here to see some beautiful studies of atmospheric perspective by James Abbott McNeill Whistler Lake Lucerne, William Turner, 1802 Click here to view William Turner's Sketchbook online Alnwick Castle, Northumberland James Abbott McNeill Whistler,1828 Click here to learn more about atmospheric perspective from The Helpful Art Teacher.

Photographer Neva Wireko combines industrial atmosphere with structured styling in "What Else Remains" for Teeth Magazine Online.

Mark Jinks Photography

Kodak Portra 400 was the very first film I shot when I get back into film, and it remains my go-to for color negative film. Sure, there are others. None of them come close, however, to the popularity of Portra 400. What’s not to love about Kodak Portra 400? It has an amazing way of rendering colors in such a way that digital photographs just cannot compare. It has an exposure

Are we looking at the moon or is the moon looking at us?

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Amazing radiant portraits of feminine beauty by Alessio Albi, extremely astonishing photographerr, who specialized in portraits, storytelling, and commercials.