Dehaze in practice

[davidedric]

We have just come back from a holiday in Norway, during which the weather was pretty bad LOTS of cloud and haze. I've been doing some experimenting with Lightroom's Dehaze tool. I am finding out lots of things, o I thought I'd start a thread with some examples.

A little bit can add a lot to a slightly hazy picture, but to start with, here is an extreme example. I think this has changed an entirely useless image into one which at least illustrates the way the day was. I expect I could do more refined work, and it will never be a great picture, but anyway:

Raw file sooc, just straightened and cropped:



Dehaze cranked way up (and a couple of intrusions removed - Dehaze certainly shows up unwanted features!

[Stagecoach]

Ok Dave, here's another example.

I have recently been reading the posts here about the new dehaze filter and took the opportunity yesterday to take a snap of a scene I regularly shoot as at this time it was extremely hazy.

No 1 - RAW to Jpeg and nothing done other than resize.


No 2 - RAW adjusted to 50% on the dehaze slider in ACR then to Jpeg and resize only.


No 3 - RAW adjusted to 90% on the dehaze slider in ACR then to Jpeg and resize only.


I have to say the results appear good if this is what you wanted to do with the scene. To date I have not spent the time comparing achieving similar results with other methods other than the dehaze filter.

The unadulterated image I would say was pretty close to what I viewed at the time, lighting and haze conditions I would not normally even consider shooting this scene.

[Mike Buckley]

Both posts are very good, informative examples. I look forward to seeing more.

[Manfred M]

While there has been a lot of "press" regarding some of the high-powered haze removal, I generally don't photograph scenes that are foggy or hazy, unless I am using this as a compositional element.

What I find I do use it for, now that I have it, is for subtle improvements of shots in high humidity environments (the sea, hot, hazy and humid summer weather, etc). I find it's a bit like sharpening and can make a good image even better.

[Mike Buckley]

Manfred's post reminds me that the Dehaze capabilities, whether they are automated functions or highly refined combinations of manual functions, can be applied to achieve primarily two results:

• Changing a quite good image to a great image
• Changing an image from being destined for the Delete key to being at least a keeper

I prefer the first situation but I'm thrilled to have the second situation when the subject is far enough away from my home that I'm unlikely to revisit the scene in better conditions. I have only one image that was changed from being awful to being a favorite, and I expect that category is going to remain a rarity.

[BrianA61]

Dave, I've noticed the same unwanted effects with the clouds darkening at high settings. I do like the way the lower 1/3 of the shot came out nice and sharp. I have the stand alone 6.1 and I thought I read somewhere that this feature was going to be included with the 6.1 update. It wasn't so I have downloaded some presets that are a "virtual" slider. At any rate, the higher adjustments seem to make the scene almost HDR-ish, IMO. I like the mid adjustment in Grahame's example. I've only started to experiment with this feature and have found that a more subtle adjustment is better at enhancing a photo. Too bad Adobe doesn't have a selective dehaze feature like they did with the graduated filter/erase tool. Now, THAT would be very useful.

[Mike Buckley]

Too bad Adobe doesn't have a selective dehaze feature

They do if you apply it within ACR as a smart filter.

[Jeff S]

I used the Raw Filter in PScc, using Dave's initial photo at the top of this thread, and making a selection on the sky on which I used the dehaze filter, and inverting it to have a selection for the foreground/mountains on which I again used the dehaze filter. I put three times the amount of dehaze on the foreground as I did on the sky. Nothing else was done to the photo. It would appear that there is some flexibility using this method.