Is there an easy way to fix haze in Photoshop?

[dimkasta]

Here is my version

About the technique, you can read about it here. A bit more fiddling might be needed to fix the brightness decrease due to the increase of the contrast.

Correcting Color with Levels

Ι hope you like it...

[mithrandir]

I used a series of Lightroom presets I created to produce 6 ev levels of the photo.
DPHDR was used to merge the pictures.
Paint.Net was used to polish the curves and contrast settings.

[Jasvox]

Run an Unsharp Mask filter on the image. Set the Radius parameter to a largish, seemingly unreasonable value somewhere between 50 and 100, I usually stick to around 60. You'll need to experiment with the Amount parameter, but the idea is generally to have it as a small to moderate value, I like around .040. Leave the Threshold parameter at 0.

Start there and see what you get.

Jason

[Hannican]

Originally Posted by SWEngineer

Hi Tim.
I think this is easy enough to apply to most of your pictures if you just use the masked levels adjustment. You can even copy this adjustment layer from one image to another and customize for each photo with the mask and maybe opacity adjustment. For your keepers, you might want go further than I have here. It won't be "easy" or "fast". But if you understand what needs fixed and a few simple PS tools to make the corrections. It will be moderately quick and easy to turn your keepers into breath-taking images.

-Mark

Thank you Mark! EXCELLENT explanations!

I've been battling with your recommendations, trying to figure out how to actually do all of them (I'm honestly a total newbie to Photoshop), and I'm stuck at the part where you said "First I merged the previous results into a new layer so I could use the PS filters on it." (to start using the unsharp mask filter on it).

I can't figure out how you merged the previous results into a new layer... I've tried some merge layers, creating new layers, etc etc. I have no idea how to actually do this part =(

The steps up to here have been spectacular, and with a little tinkering around and trying stuff out, I've managed to make my way through- already I've noticed fantastic results! It's amazing what you can do with Photoshop! Thank you again for your help Mark, I really appreciate it!

[Hannican]

Thank you Dim, that is a great link! I'm practicing on some other photos to try and get this technique down- I often need color correction and I think that this might be just the trick for a lot of my post-processing needs.

Mithrandir- so it sounds like you've got some presets that basically touch up a photo as if it were an HDR image? I mean, that's exactly what it's doing right? Taking different exposures and combining them all? That sounds like a good idea- I think I will have to try that!

Jasvox - Thank you for the suggestion! I will play around with the unsharp mask filter tonight. I've run into a suggestion like that befor and I think this time I'll actually take heed and try to figure out how the unsharp mask filter actually works! I appreciate it!

I am constantly shocked at how knowledgable everyone here is!!! Thank you to everyone else who posted on the first page- I've got to head out or I'd type individual replies to all of you guys too!

[jefrkw]

Here is my try:
I include before and after
I use action that I crease special to remove Haze,
I use brush and brush all the area of haze that need to be removed.

[jefrkw]

did not look so good last one
another try

[SWEngineer]

Originally Posted by Hannican

Thank you Mark! EXCELLENT explanations!

I've been battling with your recommendations, trying to figure out how to actually do all of them (I'm honestly a total newbie to Photoshop), and I'm stuck at the part where you said "First I merged the previous results into a new layer so I could use the PS filters on it." (to start using the unsharp mask filter on it).

I can't figure out how you merged the previous results into a new layer... I've tried some merge layers, creating new layers, etc etc. I have no idea how to actually do this part =(

Sorry... Merging several layers into a new one is a common, very useful procedure (since it allows non-destructive editing - i.e. you don't run filters on your original image). You can get the new layer by 1. Edit-SelectAll 2. Edit-CopyMerged 3. Edit-paste. Or the shortcut way... Create a new layer and CMD-OPT-SHIFT-E [Mac OS] [or CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-E on windoze]

Keep tinkering, especially if you can do it from a perspective of understanding what is happening to the individual color channels &/or components of other color models such as HSL or Lab. (This way, you can extend what you learned tinkering to new images / new problems.)

If you like the 'why it works' perspective, I highly recommend one of the (older?) Hidden Power of Photoshop Element books by Richard Lynch. I learned a ton from the copy of version 2 which I own. All the techniques & theory apply equally (and with more ease) to the full version of PS.

One more point I forgot to make in the original post: It is very important to work on a calibrated monitor so that what you see is what actually 'exists' and pretty much what everyone else will see as well.

Happy processing.

-Mark

PS. Here's my final take on your image. I didn't pay attention earlier to your comment that you like high contrast. This is kind of over-the-top for my taste, but might be closer to what you are looking for. I added several (masked) Curves layers to further increase contrast in the backgrouund, painted white (unmasked) a couple of these layers to increase mid-ground contrast, added (masked) ColorBalance and HueSat layers to fine tune the backgnd color (reducing overpowering green), and gave the sky it's own masked Curves layer (which I should have done from the start). I hope you like it as a reference to aim for. [Some of the detail is lost here as I'm using a lower quality jpg to save space in my pbase account. Also, it looks like I got a little carried away with the sky adjustment as I see some posterization. ]