Removing Haze

The CLARITY slider in ACR and LR works wonder!
 
check your histogram....if the left side is not near the end, move it (with levels or curves) and bring back some blacks (or near blacks)
 
Haze comes in different types and colors, and that means that there are a lot of things people do to try to fix it. I asked the same question once at a workshop and there were as many "always works" technique answers as there were people in the class.

Nik Multimedia has a couple of filters in their set that help some - one is a skylight filter. The other is their "contrast only" tool, which is a fairly sophisticated and controllable follow on to doing as much as you can with the clarity slider. If you can take a peek at the book Window Seat, by Julianne Kost, she has some techniques that work great on high altitude haze that includes working with the blacks slider, curves, and saturation. (Try a curves layer set to "luminance" - it won't build up saturation that you don't want.) I find that with urban smoggy haze I often need to use the white balance eyedroppers in addition to curves. Ocean haze (if the air is otherwise clean) is easier to adjust for if you're close in, but I've found that anything much out in the telephoto range, you lose a lot of detail besides losing saturation. You can kind of fix one, but not the other.

Unfortunately, every time I think I have it figured out I run into a new form of haze that my tricks don't work on. Today we have an inversion layer in my area, lots of warm air near the ground, cold above, and there's a thick haze over everything. I just pulled up a couple images and discovered that clarity, curves, saturation, blacks slider - none of them are working too well.
 
Have you tried a Skylight filter or a circular polariser to assist in removing haze before post work?
--
Warm regards, Dave.

 
I usually crop the histogram with levels in PS.

If it's still lacking punch I'll play a little with saturation and contrast, but those can quickly become destructive.

Clarity in LR works on small stuff as well too, neat little slider :)

Eric :)
 
If you use PK Sharpener there is a haze sharpener brush that enhances local contrast. Best of all is that you can paint in small areas and then go back if you over do it.

Regards John
--
John Lamb
 
Push(increase) the blacks, clarity, contrast

Give some fill light and brightness if needed.

Pushing the blacks will make a huge difference.

Better yet, post a full res image and I will adjust it and repost it WITH my LR settings.

--
'My mind is a gallery full of beautiful pictures that I should have taken'
 
can u post the image? a small reduced version will do.
 
To cut trought haze I suggest:

-convert the image to LAB mode
-open the curve dialog
-select the lightness channel

-use the pointer on the hazy portion of the image to target the affected region on the curve
-Increase curve steepness in this region only.

Learned from Dan Marguilis in his LAB mode book.

--
Carl

Nikon D-70 / Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S DX / Nikkor 50mm F1.8 D /
Tamron 90mm SP Macro / Sigma 70-300mm APO Macro Super II / SB-800

Epson Stylus Pro 4800 / Epson Stylus R1800
 

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