[Dewman]

Take a look at this landscape and you'll notice quite a bit of distant haze in the image. How would you approach this problem? I've tried both with and without a UV filter and it seems to make no difference whatsoever.


The horizon is quite a distance and I'm sure it's not possible to eliminate it completely, but every little bit would help.


TIA

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Last edited by Dewman; 08-05-2017 at 04:09 PM.

[Na Horuk]

Did you shoot raw? What I like to do is desaturate the blue channel a little bit and add contrast and clarity in that area. But there is a very small margin between reducing haze and making the photo look unnaturally flat.

Also, I think some raw software has dehaze functions built right in. The latest Lightroom has it, I think, and possibly others

I've tried both with and without a UV filter and it seems to make no difference whatsoever.

Yes, it won't. UV filters are built in onto the camera sensor, so adding one on the lens doesn't do anything other than possibly add flare and loss of contrast. UV is for film cameras. Only filter that makes sense for digital landscape photos is polarizer. A polarizer will not help much with haze, but it can be good as it adds apparent contrast (mostly just darkens the sky and removes reflections, but this can make colours look better and contrasts appear higher)

Ultimately, I suggest you use tripod, 2 sec timer, shoot raw dng, and use ETTR technique (expose to the right), low ISO, and the lens hood. But, you know, this is obviously not always possible.

[BigMackCam]

To address the problem at the point of capture, I'd consider using a circular polarising filter - adjusting to get the best compromise between haze "removal" and how you want the sky and clouds to appear (as it will affect both).

In post-processing, @Na Horuk's suggestion of gentle contrast and clarity adjustment should work well, applied using an adjustment brush or possibly a gradient filter in this case...

EDIT: I just tried the post-processing approach on your JPEG image in Lightroom 6, and a little contrast and clarity adjustment using an adjustment brush works wonders

[biz-engineer]

Wakeup early and go shooting for sunrise when air is dry. No need to remove haze.

[BigMackCam]

Wakeup early and go shooting for sunrise when air is dry. No need to remove haze.

I was looking for the "wink" or "smiley" at the end of that, but I couldn't find it...

[Na Horuk]

Wakeup early and go shooting for sunrise when air is dry. No need to remove haze.

Yeah, not every day has the same atmospheric conditions, and it even changes throughout the day. If possible, plan it out. Most landscapes look best at sunrise or sunset. Mornings can have fog or myst, which can give the landscape a different kind of look (though, it doesn't help against haze). But for most of us hobby photographers, we don't usually get a chance to plan out our photo for days in advance

[johngs]

The dehaze function in Lightroom CC does a pretty good job

[jatrax]

Dehaze in LR v6 is pretty effective.
At point of shooting try a cpl. Or a different day or time of day. Here's your smiley.

[southlander]

I concur with the earlier comments to shoot earlier in the day (eg mid morning) or that some days are far better than others in terms of haze. But also recognise that (1) the photographer may be travelling and has little choice but to capture an image immediately before moving on or (2) the light will be in the wrong dirction in the mornings for some vistas. Visibily can also be quite a bit better in humid environments immediately after a shower of rain before the rain that has fallen evaporates and returns to the sky as moisture haze. If post processing, the clarity controls can certainly help. While shooting, polarisers can also be quite helpful depending on the situation and angle of light.

[othar]

I've tried both with and without a UV filter and it seems to make no difference whatsoever.

I think your best options are with post processing as the others have mentioned, however if you want to actually reduce haze in your pictures and not just obscure in post you have to go the other way. Not the UV but rather the IR filter will reduce haze because the longer wavelength are not as much influenced by haze and atmospheric polution as visible light is. Naturally you have to live with wrong colors in your images.

[quant2325]

1. Shoot at a better time of the day.
2. Use the Dehaze slider in PS or LR.

[biz-engineer]

But for most of us hobby photographers, we don't usually get a chance to plan out our photo for days in advance

Waking up before sunrise can be difficult !

[clackers]

If you don't like that the Dehaze control in LR is global, you can paint those mountains with a Contrast brush - that's what the control seems to do.

[rawr]

DxO Optics Pro also has a 'ClearView' slider to fight haze.

Here's an explanation of how it works:
ClearView | www.dxo.com

and a nice DxO produced tutorial for ClearView is here:
Correcting haze with DxO ClearView | www.dxo.com

I like it more than LR dehaze.

[reeftool]

The Lightroom dehaze tool works very well. If you don't have LR, you can accomplish much of the same in PP with contrast and clarity adjustments to the areas that need it. Unfortunately, some days just make it difficult for landscape shooters. Filters and PP can help but some days are just plain horrible.