Dehaze in ACR 9.1 (for CS6 users)

[Jon555]

Note you get this for free in CC. Also note you need to have installed the ACR 9.1 update!

Following on from my thread on how to use the new CC-only dehaze feature in Lightroom 6.1:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55998101

Someone talked about doing it in ACR 9.1, so I just had a play and seem to have got it working.

Here's how:

"Open" a random Raw file in PS CS6.
When ACR 9.1 opens click on the icon at the end of the heading bar for the settings tab. It's the one in the bottom right here...

Click on "Save Settings".
In the "subset" menu choose grain (this just reduces the amount of crap in the file).
Save as dehaze0.xmp
Repeat for 10, 20..100 (or to suit, as before allowed values are -100 to 100, settings below 0 add Fog to the image)
(Note as there doesn't seem to be a unique ID in these files I suspect you could copy the first file to make the extra ones.)
Open the settings files in a text editor (Notepad/Wordpad/etc.)
(Note they are located at: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings - of course adjust drive name and {username} to suit your system partition/user names.)
Fine the line: crs:GrainAmount="0"
and edit to: crsehaze="20"
Replacing 20 with whatever the settings file is called
Save the file
Then to do the Dehazing just load that settings file from the same menu you saved it.

Enjoy!

Here's an example, I suspect you could just save this as C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Settings\dehaze30.xmp

<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Adobe XMP Core 5.6-c011 79.156380, 2014/05/21-23:38:37 ">
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
<rdfescription rdf:about=""
xmlns:crs="http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/"
crs:Version="9.1"
crsehaze="30"
crs:HasSettings="True"/>
</rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>

 

[Kaso]

Thanks for the detailed guide.

I thought ACR 9.1 would update the ACR GUI (panels, sections, parameters, sliders...) to include a new Dehaze section and its slider(s).

Was I supposing too much?

 

[Gregm61]

Thanks for the detailed guide.

I thought ACR 9.1 would update the ACR GUI (panels, sections, parameters, sliders...) to include a new Dehaze section and its slider(s).

Was I supposing too much?

Not with Photoshop CS6. "Updates" for CS6 only include adding newer camera models. Adobe stopped adding new features to CS6 long ago. CC is the only Photoshop version that gets new features.

 

[Kaso]

Thanks for the detailed guide.

I thought ACR 9.1 would update the ACR GUI (panels, sections, parameters, sliders...) to include a new Dehaze section and its slider(s).

Was I supposing too much?

Not with Photoshop CS6. "Updates" for CS6 only include adding newer camera models. Adobe stopped adding new features to CS6 long ago. CC is the only Photoshop version that gets new features.

Thanks.

If the act of loading a "dehaze30.xmp" preset will invoke the new Dehaze feature in ACR 9.1, a new feature is there in the ACR 9.1 update -- but the CS6 users have to "hand roll" a rudimentary UI as suggested in the OP. Am I thinking correctly?

 

[CaseyJ]

It works like a charm.

CaseyJ

 

[malch]

Oh my, that is very sweet indeed. Thank you. Merci. Danke schön. Gracias. Xie xie.

 

[Jon555]

You are indeed!

 

[nor70]

Thanks Dr Jon for providing a workaround for the ‘Dehaze’ filter within both standalone versions of Lightroom and ACR.

Initially I thought the process complicated and opted for the “easier” way of a download from Prolost for Lightroom.

I was impressed with the ease of obtaining the results of using this filter and so wanted its use within Camera Raw.

Your explanation of how this could be achieved was excellent, I was able to follow all the steps and now have ‘Dehaze’ up and running in ACR

Much appreciated that you shared the information

 

[Jon555]

You're most welcome!

 

[rpps]

Thanks Dr.John for the Dehaze Filter, it works a treat. Here is a simple photo taken yesterday of a wintery scene, I just used Dehaze 30 the photo needs more editing but it certainly is an improvement than the ACR default setting. It doesn't show the effect that good when I downloaded the photos here on DP but in real life it's does a good result.






Default ACR setting






Dehaze Filter

 

[malch]

Thanks Dr.John for the Dehaze Filter, it works a treat.

Something wrong there I think. Here's a Great Wall of Haze:

Default

With dehaze

Unfortunately, an image with serious haze is never going to be great. Nevertheless, one can achieve a very significant level of improvement.

 

[BadScience]

Photos with significant haze can look, and often do look, amazing;

The trick is to use the haze to your advantage.

The wall of China photo looks better with the haze (the filter makes it look nasty). The problem with the photo is not the haze, but the composition; which could have taken advantage of the haze to give the photo some atmosphere. With the filter, it sadly looks like an over-processed snapshot (sorry)

 

[tony brown]

Using it in CS6 on an old Minolta Dimage7 image:-

before

View attachment 982945

and after, using value = 100 (just for trial)

View attachment 982946

--
Cheers, Tony.

 

[CaseyJ]

Interesting that the dehaze filter was able to distinquish between the haze and the smoke plume. It left the smoke plume alone and actually enhanced it by removing the overlaying haze. Impressive.

CaseyJ

 

[tony brown]

Interesting that the dehaze filter was able to distinquish between the haze and the smoke plume. It left the smoke plume alone and actually enhanced it by removing the overlaying haze. Impressive.

CaseyJ

There was no localised treatment. Just one click.

It MIGHT be the colour as the Haze filter notes suggest you correct the colout balance before Dehazing.

--
Cheers, Tony.

 

[Chops]

Thank you Dr Jon for sharing the results of your hard work. I haven't used ACR in several years but I will when the need to remove haze arises. Works like a champ.

 

[Jon555]

Good spot!

 

[Kerry Pierce]

Thanks for sharing this information! It is greatly appreciated.

Kerry

 

[Sunshine_boy]

Very useful and handy. Well done in discovering it and thanks for sharing it...

 

[gdr18]

It works! Thanks a lot.

However, most of my pictures are JPG. Do you know how to apply dehaze on a jpg file?