Lighting help needed

[mm0626]

I recently took the attached photo and am wondering how to "cut the haze." Should I employ a filter on my lense when shooting during daylight, are my settings off, ???? Also, can this be fixed in post-processing using Elements 9? I'm a beginner on the software end.......

Thanks!

[Ads]

[shefjr]

I'm a noob so I'm unsure about what can be done pp. I do know though that you would have been better off shooting in the "golden hour" meaning dusk or dawn. Just my thought on how I would have attempted the photo.

[mm0626]

Agree, but unfortunately this particular tour I was on was during non-prime time, which is why I'm searching for answers to address. Thanks.

[Ysarex]

Some things just won't photograph well. You found one. Best then to enjoy the moment and not waste time in vain attempts to take bad photos. Hazy photos can be improved using Multiply and Overlay blends but this photo requires extreme correction that will also cause extreme damage in the form of noise, posterization and exaggeration of JPEG artifacts. You took the photo with a Nikon D5100. In the event that you have an NEF file a dramatically superior result would be possible.

Joe

landscape_euro.jpg
Attachment 0

[davisphotos]

I'm with Ysarex, buy a postcard of the view, and just enjoy the moment. I'm always a bit perplexed by the hordes of people I see on the Maine coast where I live with their cameras pressed to their faces taking mediocre photos and completely missing the chance to experience the beauty for themselves when they could buy a $1 postcard.

[tirediron]

There really isn't a lot you can do about haze; shooting first thing in the morning will help, or, if it's pollution, on a windy day.

[KmH]

A B + W 72mm Skylight 1A Coated Glass Filter (KR1.5)

or a B+W 77mm Clear UV Haze with Multi-Resistant Coating (010M)

may have helped with the haze in the air.

There is usually less particulate matter in the air in the mornings. By mornings, this time of year, I mean no later than about 1 hour after sunrise. Sunrise here in central Iowa is 5:30 AM.

[Ysarex]

I'm with Ysarex, buy a postcard of the view, and just enjoy the moment. I'm always a bit perplexed by the hordes of people I see on the Maine coast where I live with their cameras pressed to their faces taking mediocre photos and completely missing the chance to experience the beauty for themselves when they could buy a $1 postcard.

So your comment requires that I tell a story: What photographer isn't familiar with Ansel Adams' famous photo Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley: http://masters-of-photography.com/im...dams_storm.jpg Every dentist office has a copy hanging in the lobby.

If you visit the park that view is actually right off the road. There's a parking lot there and a pull over. The Parks Dept. has even placed a sign there with a camera on it: Photo op! However times have changed. When Ansel took his photo Sacramento wasn't nearly as big nor choked with nearly so many pollution spewing cars. Today on an average summer day a thick yellow hazy of smog and poison floats in the valley. The last time I visited I stopped to see how those two pine trees in the photo lower right corner were doing -- still there. The yellow smog was thick and menacing when I pulled in next to a tour bus of Japanese tourists. I watched as everyone of them in an orderly line walked right up to the camera sign on the post and snapped their own personal copy of the Yosemite Valley Vista. I took one look at the cr*p in the air and never took my camera out of the bag.

Joe

[Buckster]

You're actually allowed to do both, if you want to.

Sounds crazy, I know, but you CAN enjoy the view for as long as you like AND take a photo (or more than one! Gasp!!), if you want to. It's not like they're mutually exclusive propositions or that you have to decide to only do one or the other.

Some of us like to shoot, even touristy stuff that's been shot a million times. Some of us like to see if we can shoot it as well as what we'd see on a typical postcard, or maybe even better. We call that a "hobby", and find it to be "enjoyable".



In the several years since I shot this and about another couple hundred photos around that valley, I've never been sorry that I did - not even once. I still enjoy looking at it, and it still takes me right back to the day I was standing there, feeling the breeze and enjoying the scenery in real life. It's a single capture of a much larger memory that I treasure that transports me in a moment back to that place.

The 13" x 19" print that hangs on my wall in a matted frame makes me happy too, and I notice that a lot of other people seem to enjoy looking at it for some reason.

Hard to believe, I know - should've just bought a postcard...

[Ysarex]

I've got no problem with taking classic tourist shots if a workable photo is possible. I also like my shot of the lower falls on the Yellowstone. What I was trying to say was many tourists arrive at such places when the lighting/weather preculdes a successful photo. That's a nice shot of the valley. A different day, light and weather and, as in my last visit, it made no sense to take the camera out of the bag.

Joe

[Buckster]

I've got no problem with taking classic tourist shots if a workable photo is possible. I also like my shot of the lower falls on the Yellowstone. What I was trying to say was many tourists arrive at such places when the lighting/weather preculdes a successful photo. That's a nice shot of the valley. A different day, light and weather and, as in my last visit, it made no sense to take the camera out of the bag.

Joe

I can understand that, to some degree, and it's certainly just a personal preference/decision.

I would personally pull it out and shoot no matter what to capture whatever particular conditions existed at the time, and I'd try to work with them to make an interesting photo regardless of, or perhaps in spite of, those conditions. But that's just me.

[Designer]

I recently took the attached photo and am wondering how to "cut the haze." Should I employ a filter on my lense when shooting during daylight, are my settings off, ???? Also, can this be fixed in post-processing using Elements 9? I'm a beginner on the software end.......

Thanks!

There will always be some haze, more or less, depending upon the day/location. Artists use this phenomonon, called "aerial perspective" as a technique to create the illusion of great depth in the scene they are creating.

If this is a location that you can visit on a regular basis, just wait for a day when the haze is not so thick. Your best bet will be in winter.