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Removing Haze in Photoshop Elements
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Jun 8, 2012 18:10:43   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
Hi, Folks

I am starting this thread to share ideas for removing haze from photos in PSE10. I currently have two methods:
1. The clarity slider in ACR.
2. The steps described in Photoshop Elements Techniques March/April 2011 edition.

Below is an exzmple using 2. I'd like to learn how to do better.

Before "Unhaze"
Before "Unhaze"...

After "Unhaze"
After "Unhaze"...

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Jun 9, 2012 06:18:45   #
johnske Loc: Townsville
 
In CS2 I'd use Levels (the centre slider to the right) to make it a little more low key, then the unsharp mask for local contrast enhancement (15% at 250px), then the unsharp mask to sharpen, at 50% at 5px and also 50% at 0.8px for the finer detail

PS: If you want a less subtle effect you can run local contrast enhancement again and again at the same settings till you're happy



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Jun 9, 2012 09:27:13   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
johnske wrote:
In CS2 I'd use Levels (the centre slider to the right) to make it a little more low key, then the unsharp mask for local contrast enhancement (15% at 250px), then the unsharp mask to sharpen, at 50% at 5px and also 50% at 0.8px for the finer detail

PS: If you want a less subtle effect you can run local contrast enhancement again and again at the same settings till you're happy


PSE 10 has the Levels adjustment. I'll try that. Your method doesen't adjust the colors as method 2 above does.

Method 2 above uses the Unsharp mask but at 100%, Radius 2, Threshold 2. I haven't figured out what "Threshold" does.

What do you mean by "local contrast adjustment" and how do you do it?

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Jun 9, 2012 11:12:37   #
johnske Loc: Townsville
 
MtnMan wrote:
johnske wrote:
In CS2 I'd use Levels (the centre slider to the right) to make it a little more low key, then the unsharp mask for local contrast enhancement (15% at 250px), then the unsharp mask to sharpen, at 50% at 5px and also 50% at 0.8px for the finer detail

PS: If you want a less subtle effect you can run local contrast enhancement again and again at the same settings till you're happy


PSE 10 has the Levels adjustment. I'll try that. Your method doesen't adjust the colors as method 2 above does.

Method 2 above uses the Unsharp mask but at 100%, Radius 2, Threshold 2. I haven't figured out what "Threshold" does.

What do you mean by "local contrast adjustment" and how do you do it?
quote=johnske In CS2 I'd use Levels (the centre s... (show quote)
local contrast enhancement is done with the unsharp mask - 15% at 250px is what i prefer and just leave the threshold at zero - 15% is actually a rather subtle adjustment which allows you to use it repeatedly if you wish

local contrast enhancement and threshold is discussed briefly here > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking and many other places on the web

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Jun 9, 2012 11:53:01   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
johnske wrote:

local contrast enhancement and threshold is discussed briefly here > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking and many other places on the web


Thanks!

I had the wrong impression that "local" involved making a selection of the area you wished to apply the selection to.

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Jun 9, 2012 12:04:03   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
I'm not having much luck with any of the method on this one. Other ideas?



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Jun 9, 2012 12:43:00   #
johnske Loc: Townsville
 
There's only so much you can do with distance haze, which is what you have here (the previous paqnorama shot was a tad over-exposed, which is why a levels adjustment worked on it). You really need to go back on a less hazy day and take the shot over again.

However, assuming you can't and just want to make something of this shot, here's what i've done in CS2 (someone else may have a better idea)

ran Autocurves
ran Auto Contrast
ran Auto Color
unsharp mask 50%, 0.8px
unsharp mask 50%, 5px
then ran local contrast enhancement (as described before) SIX times



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Jun 9, 2012 17:11:29   #
James Parrish Loc: Folsom, California
 
Hi!
I Used CS3 Photo Shop/Bridge to get the following images from your pick! But first I saved it as a RAW file!

I will send 3 different versions using i at a time since the server seems to get over loaded with all 3 at the same time. I assume it's the size of the files.

SO here is # 1

# 1
# 1...

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Jun 9, 2012 17:13:20   #
James Parrish Loc: Folsom, California
 
Here is # 2

# 2
# 2...

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Jun 9, 2012 17:16:38   #
James Parrish Loc: Folsom, California
 
And Last # 3

Please note that color saturation was not really adjusted and could be lessened.

# 3
# 3...

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Jun 9, 2012 17:42:16   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
Thank you all for giving it a try. At least I don't feel too bad with what I was able to do with it so far.

While I'd love to go back anohter day its about 1,000 miles away so that won't happen for a while. I suspect to not have the actual haze you'd need to get there with special weather conditions; e.g. after a rain just cleared the air. That dosen't happen very often in Arizona. ;-)

I see there are some anti-haze filters available. Anyone have any experience or examples with using them? In this case I knew that haze was likely to be a problem. I tried some with a CP filter but can't tell that it did too much good. I was able to get some to come out better but I don't know if they had the CP on to start.

Meantime I'll continue to look for other solutions. Here's another shot near dawn which isn't too bad.



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Jun 9, 2012 17:59:41   #
docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado
 
johnske wrote:
There's only so much you can do with distance haze, which is what you have here (the previous paqnorama shot was a tad over-exposed, which is why a levels adjustment worked on it). You really need to go back on a less hazy day and take the shot over again.

However, assuming you can't and just want to make something of this shot, here's what i've done in CS2 (someone else may have a better idea)

ran Autocurves
ran Auto Contrast
ran Auto Color
unsharp mask 50%, 0.8px
unsharp mask 50%, 5px
then ran local contrast enhancement (as described before) SIX times
There's only so much you can do with distance haze... (show quote)


your response to re-shoot was the better advice. On the "improved image" you get a tiny bit more "clarity" in the background at the expense of removing any pretense of naturalness from the foreground. Software processing can only do so much....

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Jun 9, 2012 19:32:31   #
MtnMan Loc: ID
 
Anyone tried this:

http://www.imgfsr.com/ifsr_hr.html

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Jun 9, 2012 21:51:10   #
docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado
 
MtnMan wrote:


i was going to but then my satellite died

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Jun 9, 2012 22:03:27   #
johnske Loc: Townsville
 
MtnMan wrote:

That looked interesting, but before i would think of buying i would test, so i copied their hazy "befores" from their site and noticed in photoshop that the histogram peaks of these were all bunched up around the centre and obviously needed a levels adjustment so, using the process i tried above i.e.

ran Auto Curves
ran Auto Contrast
ran Auto Color
unsharp mask 50%, 0.8px
unsharp mask 50%, 5px
ran unsharp mask 15%, 250px for local contrast enhancement and i got virtually identical "after" results (try it yourself)

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