Landscape Photos - Atmospheric Haze

[7890]

I took hundreds of landscape photos on a recent trip to Yosemite National Park. In every image, there is a common issue with atmospheric haze. I'm sure you could find other problems, but the haze is what bugs me.

I guess the biggest mistake was no polarizer.

I've read every tutorial I can find, but can't get the results I'm looking for.
I've tried curves, levels, contrast, etc..
The only method that gets me close is individual R-G-B levels, gradient mask, and then color burn.
Known Techniques + Trial and Error = Time consuming.

Although I can get close to removing the problem, the results are disappointing. Furthermore, I second guess myself to the point of losing desire to correct these images. With so many pictures, I'll be retouching for weeks

Images are located at:
Original
Edited
http://www.focusflare.com/retouch

If any one of you have an alternative method for correction, I would love to hear about it.

Greg

[DiamondsDr47]

Hi, for next time, filters definitely help and select right time of the day (early morning, or late afternoon) when the sun is “soft”.
Best regards,

[DaveS]

Hi Greg,
had a quick play,
1 I duplicated the background and ran the high pass filter over it set to 3 and overlay
2 Copied the original image and did a calculations of the green channel and copied it to the the original again using overlay and masked the foreground.
if the image is too sharp you could always reduce the opacity of the high pass layer.

Dave

[0lBaldy]

Greg, I did a levels then ran the "JtD Polarizer 2" action (from DPReview Actions v06a) discussed here and can be downloaded from here

~~Original~ ~~Polarized~

[Verywierd]

With the objective of recovering the maximum detail out of the haze with the minimum effort, I did this:

1. Applied a "Local Equalization" filter - available free from here :
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/...ualization.htm

No adjustment or tuning. Just ran the filter and applied the result in Overlay blend mode 12% opacity.

2. Opened a Colour Balance layer and shifted the blue over to yellow until the maximum reduction in blue haze cast was removed. Did a quick paint over on the layer mask to bring the sky back from white/green.

3. Merged the layers and made a duplicate, and applied in Multiply blend mode (100%).

I did not do any clean up or anything else other than the above so that you could see the effect of only these steps.
Naturally, the final colour cast and the sky can be adjusted to taste.

[Juergen D]

I used Adjust Sharpness in PSE5 (75%, 16px set to Remove Gaussian Blur), duplicated that layer and applied the same filter settings again. Reduced opacity to 30%.
Duplicated the first sharpened layer, set it to Overlay at 50% opacity.
Painted the upper third of the image on a 50% gray overlay layer on top with a soft brush at 33% and 20% opacity. I suppose a gradient would have done the same job.

Juergen

[Swampy]

I used OnOne Software's Color Tune then Unsharp mask.

[GerryB]

Changed to Lab Mode.
Levels Adjustment Layer: 23, 213
Curves Adjustment Layer: Lightness 10, 90
a -80, +80
b -80, +80
Converted back to RGB Mode and saved.
I only spent 5 minutes or so on this. You could get better results by spending a little more time and tweaking the a and b channels a bit more.

[Swampy]

There are so dang many way to achieve the same thing.. LOL

[DiamondsDr47]

If you shot in jpeg mode lab mode, or if you have lightroom is a good choice.
Or if you have raw files then in raw editor you have a lot of room. Or if you
you familiar with luminosity masking
(http://www.goodlight.us/writing/lumi...tymasks-5.html), true there is a lot of ways...
Best regards,

[midnitejam]

Originally Posted by 7890

I took hundreds of landscape photos on a recent trip to Yosemite National Park. In every image, there is a common issue with atmospheric haze. I'm sure you could find other problems, but the haze is what bugs me.

I guess the biggest mistake was no polarizer.

I've read every tutorial I can find, but can't get the results I'm looking for.
I've tried curves, levels, contrast, etc..
The only method that gets me close is individual R-G-B levels, gradient mask, and then color burn.
Known Techniques + Trial and Error = Time consuming.

Although I can get close to removing the problem, the results are disappointing. Furthermore, I second guess myself to the point of losing desire to correct these images. With so many pictures, I'll be retouching for weeks

Images are located at:
Original
Edited
http://www.focusflare.com/retouch

If any one of you have an alternative method for correction, I would love to hear about it.

Greg

Greg, here's my attempt for a solution....


RAW
1) BASIC Tab
Fill Light: 30, Blacks: 17, Contrast: 23, Clarity: 77, Vibrance: 28

2) TONE CURVEtab
Lights: 26, Darks: -43

CS3
1) LAB Mode
Lightnes Channel: Move top slider of curve line 20% to left. Move bottom slider of curve line 10% to right
a Channel: Move top slider of curve line 10% to left. Move bottom slider of curve line 10% to right.
b Channel: Same procedure as a channel.




Here's My Version

[Dave.Cox]

I just had to have a go at this too. I used a couple of levels layers, with gradient masks to restrict the levels adjustment to the desired area.

[chillin]

I don't think you can avoid using masking & selective adjustments.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

I checked the channels and found the red was almost haze free. I duplicated the background.... used apply image and applied the red channel in normal mode 100 percent. Then I changed this layer to Luminosity.

I then used Curves to increase contrast I also used a color burn PWL layer at 8 percent to help with the haze... Then a hue/saturation adjustment and one more curves for fine-tuning contrasts and color.

Butch

[Markzebra]

This image would be improved by INCREASING and working with the atmospheric perspective, not trying to reduce it. Thats about the worst thing to do. It looks flat for a whole variety of reasons which unfortunately have nothing to do with the natural light.

[plugsnpixels]

The Kodachrome-like colors in Butch's example remind me of my grandfather's old color movies of Yosemite from the '50s!

There's a new plug-in I tried yesterday for the first time that may help in this case (ContrastMaster). It did wonders for my flat and hazy from-the-airplane-window photo.

I didn't try it on this thread's image yet because ContrastMaster is for Windows only at this time and I'm on an older PPC Mac right now...

[7890]

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to to improve this shot as well as your suggestions and examples. It seems there is no "Easy Button" to perfect this picture. Regrettably, my camera settings were not correctly established prior to pressing he shutter. You've all given me good insight to possibilities, and although the results will be far from perfect, I'm aiming for as good as it can get.

Greg

[garibaldi]

keep it real

[BobZZZ]

There is a formula that works for most hazy landscape shots. They have 2 faults lack of contrast and a blue cast.

As someone has already pointed out a quick look at the channels shows that there is much more detail in the red. This is almost always the case with atmospheric haze. So if you copy the layer and use apply image to replace the RGB with the red and set the blend to luminosity you almost have a fix.

The colour can be sorted out with a quick trip to LAB. edit convert to profile LAB and steepen the A & B channels with a curve adjustment layer moving each end of the curve the same amount to keep the line going though the center point. Then you can tweak the mid point of the B to warm up the blue cast.

A small S curve in the L sorts out the contrast.

Finally you can tighten up the definition with a bit of low amount hi Radius unsharp mask rad 40 amount 20

Flatten Edit convert to profile RGB and its done

[Swampy]

Excellent, Bob!

[Janet Petty]

Ditto what Swampy said.

I've noticed that in the years since my youth when I took lots of landscapes (you know the kind--the horizon is smack in the middle ) that pollution has robbed us of some gorgeous scenery. Your method of removing the haze is a good one. I don't usually replace the blue channel; but everything else you said I've done with good success. Thanks for the extra tip.

Janet

[lecherro]

Heres a try I made. I use layer mask to seperate the mountains. Then layers to adjust contrast and levels of blue in different places its a quicky job, maybe 15 min.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c.../OPP/Scape.png

[arab]

Using the selective colour tool mainly for neutral colour, it generally works fairly well, than a little tweaking with level helps