Removing "haze" from a photo.

[Stoneface]

I have some trouble with shooting photos and either the entire, or at least part of, the photo will be kindly faded as though there's haze between myself and the subject - a treeline in the distance, for example. Perhaps there is some haze. How do I correct that? I have Elements 8.



God bless,

Rowdy

[mseigafuse]

Hi there Rowdy. It would be much easier to help you if you posted some examples, that way we can get a better idea of what issues you might be facing. One technique I found helped eliminate haze is to duplicate the layer and put the new layer is overlay mode. That seems to work pretty well for that kind of summer humidity haze off in the distance. Sometimes you can repeat and eliminate even more have, but you'll have to decide how much is too much...

I hope that helps and if you post an example it would be helpful.

Mike

[autofocus]

Rowdy, a certain amount of haze as we, or the photo looks off in the distance is normal. A UV haze filter on your lens could help a little. If you are using Photoshop, your Unsharp Mask tool will also cut through some of that. Adjust your top two sliders fairly high until you see some improvements.

Vince

[vandergus]

The simplest way (though maybe not the best) is done using levels.

In elements, you should be able to create a new levels adjustment layer. In the window that pops up, take the little triangle/pentagon thingy at the bottom left corner of the histogram and drag it to the right. What you are doing is adjusting the blackpoint. Pixels that were previously dark grey will now be black. It has the overall effect of increasing the contrast of the image and makes the haze less apparent.

It's a good place to start at least.

[mseigafuse]

I had read in a book about mastering the GIMP that overlay layers could be used to reduce haze in images. I had decent results with this before, but after trying out the suggestions here on a very hazy picture my son took a couple of summers back it is pretty clear which method works best on this image...

[Jim Poor]

Setting a proper black point will help and then, if Elements has selective color, you can add black to the blacks to cut some more of the haze.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by mseigafuse

I had read in a book about mastering the GIMP that overlay layers could be used to reduce haze in images. I had decent results with this before, but after trying out the suggestions here on a very hazy picture my son took a couple of summers back it is pretty clear which method works best on this image...

Nicely presented...sure looks like the obvious winner

[kencaleno]

Use a defog recipe:

Ctrl+J
Filter> sharpen> Unsharp Mask
Amount 10
Radius 50 pixels
Threshold 0
Flatten and save

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

Use a defog recipe:

Ctrl+J
Filter> sharpen> Unsharp Mask
Amount 10
Radius 50 pixels
Threshold 0
Flatten and save

This does nothing but give halos, and depending on the size is essentially imperceptible.

[mseigafuse]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

This does nothing but give halos, and depending on the size is essentially imperceptible.

Not to pile one, but I tried this on the picture I posted above and it really made no improvement at all. Not to say that it may not work on some images, but on mine it made no difference.