need some pp help - DPChallenge Forums

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

06/12/2007 04:21:50 PM · #1

hi all
I'm sure that this has been asked i the past but i cannot find a thread anywhere.
I'm working on a photo taken mid day in bright sunlight there is a lot of haze in the background is there any way in cs2 to remove the haze?

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

06/12/2007 04:23:54 PM · #2

shadow/highlights would probably work with this.

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

06/12/2007 04:25:27 PM · #3

I'd use Curves. Give the curve a little "s" tweak, anchor point in the center and pull the bottom half down a smidge. It'll boost the contrast nicely.

SteveJ

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

06/12/2007 04:36:30 PM · #4

Originally posted by strangeghost:

I'd use Curves. Give the curve a little "s" tweak, anchor point in the center and pull the bottom half down a smidge. It'll boost the contrast nicely.

I use curves a lot, but never thought of anchoring in the centre. Thanks! A great tip.

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

06/12/2007 04:44:53 PM · #5

thanks for the help

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

06/12/2007 04:45:23 PM · #6

First and foremost, you don't want to increase contrast on the subject, since it's already very high. So start by creating a duplicate layer above your photo. Now on the duplicate layer, apply USM using a small amount (10-20) and a large radius (20-40 or so). This will increase local contrast, cutting down the haze. You might also adjust the black point using levels or curves.
Next, create a layer mask, and mask out the subject on the duplicate layer, revealing the untouched layer below. Done.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

06/12/2007 05:42:07 PM · #7

If it's of interest to anyone, I have the step-by-step with
printscreens available (mini-tutorial) of this quick edit:

I can format a post and add it to this thread in a little while.
(darn work stuff gets in the way...)

Message edited by author 2007-06-12 21:45:02.

kandykarml

Nikon D80

06/12/2007 06:17:39 PM · #8

Originally posted by Brad:

If it's of interest to anyone, I have the step-by-step with
printscreens available (mini-tutorial) of this quick edit:

I can format a post and add it to this thread in a little while.
(darn work stuff gets in the way...)

Uhh, heck yeah it's of interest !!!! I live close to the beach & always have problems of haze in my photo's.. Some people actually confuse it with SMOG !!!.. It's not smog off the coast line of a beach, it's a marine layer usually & here in California, it's usually always there.. Thanks Brad !!!

06/12/2007 09:40:35 PM · #9

hmmm... not much interest as usual.

Hope you get something out of this Kristin.

* Disclaimer *
I edit a bit different than most, and usually get slapped around for it,
but always manage to get it right, and often fix what others can't.

In Photoshop (I use CS2), one of the first things I check is the color balance/white balance, and a very powerful tool to use (most of the time) is Image, Adjustments, Match Color:

In the Match Color box is a check box called Neutralize. Check it and watch what happens. There are 3 sliders there to adjust Luminance, Color Intensity and Fade. Fade works like adjusting the blend mode opacity in a layer and affects the global change made in this step. In this case, sliding the fade to about 10 gave what I thought was the best tones.

Note: This match color can also be used in very creative ways by bringing in an image that you like the tones, colors, hues, etc. and using that in the drop-down box at the bottom as the source to match, for instance you took 40 images at a wedding and the white balance was way off. Fix one, then minimize it, bring in the next, go to the match color, use the drop-down box, select the fixed one as the source, and voila - near perfection in one step.

Now with a foundation of pretty nicely balanced colors levels, I next made a New Layer Via Copy:

In this new layer, I ran a sharpening action using Unsharp mask (USM) that does wonders, especially in tweaking local contrasts. Here are the steps:
(love running this as an action - does amazing this to skin especially)

USM
Amount: 18%
Radius: 40 pixels
Threshold: 0
USM
Amount 150%
Radius: 0.3 pixels
Threshold: 0
Edit, Fade
Opacity: 100%
Mode: darken
USM
Amount: 150%
Radius: 0.3 pixels
Threshold:0
Edit, Fade
Opacity: 50%
Mode: lighten

On an image of this size, the effect was a bit harsh on her face:

But being in a layer, I can erase the effects by using the eraser tool, and in this case, erased at 100% strength to reveal what's under the layer, using a soft-edged brush. Note - look in the layers palette on the right and you will see the mask of sorts left by the eraser tool. This same process can be done using layer masks, and is essentially what this is, but in a very different work flow (it's considered destructive editing, and is, so use a layer mask if you want to preserve your layers and make adjustments later):

At this point, th eimage is sharp, local contrast upped a bit, and her face has been kept on the soft side, so I flattened the layers:

Looking at the image, I feel the need to bring some detail out of the shadows and cut a little harshness, so I wen to the Shadow/Highlight tool, and adjusted the shadows and highlights to 5%

Getting there. Time to make a new layer via copy again:

In the new layer, I want to drop the exposure a bit, and chose to use Image, Adjustments, Levels, and get this:

Under the graph are 3 slider points. Left is Black, Middle is Neutral and right is White level points. By clicking and dragging the center slider to about 80 as seen in the input levels center box on top, the overall neutral levels (brightness / neutral density / opacity) dropped.

The woman looks to dark and being in a new layer, we can uncover what under the layer by going back to our eraser tool and bringing her levels back. Note the layer palette on the right again and you can see teh masking effect:

Note: Here is a priceless tip when using the eraser like this. When you are done, and flatten it, any areas not erased will come back to haunt you by standing out. This is where everyone on the is site jumps in and preaches layer masks. The tip is, when you think you have erased everything, go to Image, Adjustments, Invert. What you missed will stand out like a sore thumb, and while inverted, keep erasing, zooming in if need be and dropping the size of the eraser to adjust for finer detail. When done, go Image, Adjustments, Invert and if satisfied, flatten the layer.

In this shot, all the water is going to eventually run out the right side as it has a pretty good tilt, so let's fix the horizon. Go to the right tool bar, right-click on the eyedropper to expand, and select the measure tool:

I zoomed in on the water on the horizon in order to find something I knew was as close to level as possible, (this step works on verticals as well - good for buildings. tress, etc) Using the measure tool, click on the horizon on one side and drag a line and release the mouse on the other side. This should leave a line on the desired horizontal we want:

Now go to Image, Adjustments, Rotate Canvas, Arbitrary.

There will be a popup with the exact number of degrees that line you just drew is off from true horizontal, in this case, it will take 3.37 degrees of clockwise (CW) rotation to level it out:

Click OK and bingo - the horizon is level:

Here I wanted to reduce the noise, particulalry in the sky. I made a new layer via copy again, then using CS2's noise reduction, went to Filter, Noise, Reduce Noise:

I chose Basic, Strength 10, Preserve details 40, Reduce Color Noise 0, Sharpen Details 0, and left the Remove jpeg artifacts unchecked. Another option here wouldhave been to go to advanced, selected the blue channel and made adjustments there. Now because I reduced the noise globally, I noticed after hitting OK that the woman skin and jacket lost a lot of texture and want to bring them back. Out with the eraser tool again as we are in a layer, and brought the noise back in order to preserve the textures. Note the layers palette again to the right:

Layers, Flatten.

What to do with the blank canvas left behind. If you are good at cloning, and it's small enough in size, you can fill it in by sampling near it (not challenge legal btw) or you can crop it. I happen to have had a 5x7" as my recent crop tool and just used that, though choosing a desired end product size crop would probably be best. Click and drag a corner right to the edges, as far as possible, drag the whole crop box around if needed, and when done, right click and choose crop (or double click inside the crop box):

Time to resize it, type in the desired pixel dimension of the longest side, in this case it was 800 pixels, and the vertical should compute itself if the Scale Sizes & Constrain Proportions boxes are checked, and note my Resample Image Interpolation is Bicubic Sharper (what I have set as my default) Click OK and flatten the layers - could have done them right before this step too.

The before (with all the editing steps expanded out to show it really didn't take much to do the edit):

And the end product, total time about 3 minutes:

I personally would have done a lot more to it, but wanted to keep it as a basic, simple fix. Photoshop shouldn't be scary.

Hope this helps.

If Admin wants to add this into the tutorials or to the how'd they do that section,
it's OK by me, so long as it's OK by

scwalsh as it was his image.

fotomann_forever

06/12/2007 09:42:40 PM · #10

Originally posted by scwalsh:

need some pp help

It's not his specialty, but

DrAchoo might be able to point ya in the right direction. I hope everything comes out alright ;-)

fotomann_forever

06/12/2007 09:43:18 PM · #11

Awesome writeup Brad.

BAMartin

Apple iPhone 5

06/12/2007 09:45:03 PM · #12

Wow Brad, that was incredible, and not too scary at all.

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

06/12/2007 09:53:31 PM · #13

WOW Brad!
Thanks for all the help. I'm trying your techniques as we speak.
Yes be all means use this as a tutorial, I'm sure ill have to use this many time

Scott

sabphoto

Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+

06/12/2007 09:55:02 PM · #14

since you live near the beach have you given a circular polarizer a try? It won't help in every instance but might save you some headaches in PP...just an idea.

strangeghost

Canon EOS-7D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

06/12/2007 10:07:19 PM · #15

Incredible tutorial Brad. You should be doing this for a living!

06/12/2007 10:21:53 PM · #16

Thanks all, but the thanks goes back to this site as it is where I have learned most of it and the drive to explore.
The rest is trial & error.
Funny how a 3-minute edit took an hour to put together...

Anyone really wants to play, drop over to Jeff Ward's (

smurfguy) site PPChallenge.com
Jeff set up a place for us to play doing just what I did - edit, and learn as you try new things, and is based on DPCHallenge's rule sets, username & password, voting setup, but one step better - during the voting, we can click on the image being voted on, and can see the original for comparison, then click back to see the edit - very cool idea!

(It's also where I kick everyone's butt!) LOL

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

06/12/2007 10:41:19 PM · #17

again thanks for all the help
in case anyone was interested in knowing who she is, she's Jen my feionce