Reduce/remove/eliminate fog cast?

[vawitt]

Norma asked a question in another thread about adding fog, and I said she could have some of mine...and I wasn't kidding. We were at an overlook staring down into the Na Pali cliffs and a cloud was dodging in and out. It was quite funny as people ran from one viewpoint to another, shouting to each other "over here! We can see something!"

I grabbed this shot, but it is about the most clear of the bunch. Anyway to get rid of the fog cast?

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1SOboxKc7SUqtdC8OuvnraUYvVvPi_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1SOboxKc7SUqtdC8OuvnraUYvVvPi)

~Val

[Jeff Perry]

Val, there a re a number of ways to improve the image, most importantly by increasing the contrast.

The quickest is to...

1. Load the image
2. Duplicate the layer (drag the background layer up onto the little square icon at the top of the layers panel that has a corner turned down)
3. Change the "blend mode" of that new layer to Overlay.

You should see quite an improvement.

Other ways...

Open the file in Adobe Camera Raw and tinker with the sliders a bit, then open the image in Elements, and try the Overlay trick (you may have to lower the opacity of the Overlay layer to tone it down to your liking.

Yet another way, open the image and in the menus, go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves... and play with the sliders or the presets on the left.

Lastly, you can also add a Levels Adjustment Layer (click the little black/white circle at the top of the layers panel) and move the white, gray and black point (little arrows at the bottom of the histogram graph) to coax a bit more contrast out of it.

You may also be tempted to adjust "saturation" much the same way as Levels, just be careful since it may oversaturate the foreground which needs less treatment.

Have fun, and try them all. I'm sure other users will chime in with even more and better suggestions.

Jeff

[vawitt]

Just adding the Overlay blend was a HUGE improvement. This is a quick tweak...

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1hQcUQdodddHV4E6oNHcvvStdxk_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1hQcUQdodddHV4E6oNHcvvStdxk)

I'll try more when I get home...my laptop isn't calibrated the same as my "real' monitor, but this little work gives me big hope. Thanks!!

~Val in sunny HI

[TonyW]

Another way (like Jeff says there are always more than one) is use the Unsharp Mask. The official haze removal settings are 30/60/1 but in this case 60/60/0 works quite well (the settings will depend on the pixel dimensions so the original may be different). It did introduce some noise in the sky which I got rid of with my Noise Filter (Neat Image).

Second one uses the USM followed by Jeffs method - actually a variant as I used Soft Light rather than Overlay which gives a softer effect.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1XarcizS01atLjR07CadduFwXwINN0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1XarcizS01atLjR07CadduFwXwINN0) http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/18iIVFSwPF3Du705m2OVGngp6BjAEf0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=18iIVFSwPF3Du705m2OVGngp6BjAEf0)

Tony

[Juergen D]

Going with some of Jeff's suggestions and some other steps, here is what I did:

Duplicated Layer 1 and applied USM at 20,60,0
Duplicated that layer and set it to Overlay
Applied a Levels Adjustment layer
Opened a new, blank layer, set it to Overlay and filled it with 50% gray
Painted the foggy areas on the that layer with a 30% opacity soft black brush
Added some Saturation (Hue/Sat layer)
Merged Visible on yet another layer
Sharpened that layer with USM 0.3,250,0
Selected the sky and applied a Median at Radius 3

Juergen

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1yh4RG9IcCGRRKC0fR8OTGBFCQN1LF_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1yh4RG9IcCGRRKC0fR8OTGBFCQN1LF)

[Simenon]

There are a number of things I found that can greatly improve your foggy mountain vista. I began with a levels adjust pulling the shadows and highlights sliders into the base of the mountain. Next I added a contrast levels adjustment using one of Lynch's power tools. Then I went to a USM. You can find a lot of numbers tossed about for using USM to correct haze. One tutorial suggests an Amount of 20-30 and a Radius of 30-50 for example. In actual practice I find you have to play around with the sliders a bit and may achieve decent results with settings far from those suggested. Just yesterday I saw 20\30\4 recommended for light haze and 20\60\4 for strong haze. Those settings didn't cut much ice in my Elements 4 where I ended up at Amount 132, Radius 166 and Threshold 0 for this picture. Further enhancement could be made to the haze, but at the sacrifice of a rapidly deteriorating sky. After the USM I applied a cooling filter to the sky and a warming filter to the remainder of the picture. That is a nice trick that will improve many a landscape. All of this left a somewhat noisy sky that I cleared up with Noise Ninja. The end result was a nice picture with virtually no haze and a soft blue sky.

Depending on your skills level and tools at hand other things might be done such as completely replacing the sky with one that is more picturesque. Easy enough to do in this case simply using the Magic Wand tool. Some plugs-ins allow interesting effects to be applied as well. One of my favorites is the $16 ReDynaMix which offers some interesting lighting adjustments and other effects.

~ Simenon

[vawitt]

Wow! You guys are having some grand fun with fog removal. Thanks for all the pointers (and settings suggestions for the unsharp mask). I have several different shots of two different vistas from this viewpoint and I'm excited that I might be able to actually see what they look like :D.

Great tips, everyone, and MUCH appreciated!

~Val

[Skullman3518]

I know I've seen it before, but how do I open a jpeg file with Adobe Camera Raw so i can adjust it using that?

Thanks,
Greg

[Michel B]

Opening a jpeg in ACR: use 'Open As' instead of 'Open' from the editor. Choose the 3rd option 'as Camera Raw...)

Removing haze: two sliders to consider:
- Contrast and blacks (plays on midtones mainly)
- Clarity acts just like USM