Can anyone help / advise ?

[Lensmeister]

I took this shot of the Hollywood sign last month but as you can see it's washed out from the haze/smoggy due to the heatwave. This shot was done using a UV filter as well and I can't think how to get the colours sorted out

Can anyone help please ?

Thanks in advance....

 

[j_mcquillen]

I could do a quick a photoshop job if you're happy for me to save and edit...

 

[Lensmeister]

Oh yes please mate.

And if you could let me know how to rescure some of the others I shot that day .... Just an outline on how to in photoshop CS would be cool ...

:hail:

Thanks

 

[j_mcquillen]

It's a bit rushed, especially around the edges of the tower and hills etc, so I'm sure some clever bu**er with a tablet & graphics pen will be able to do a better job

Technique was as follows (I use Photoshop Elements 4, so it might be slightly different using CS):

1. Selection of foreground using 'magnetic lassoo' - I then feathered this selection slightly, and saved the selection.

2. Used levels to correct brightness / contrast / gamma etc for the foreground

3. Inverted selection, and used levels again to correct the contrast of the background - this helped remove some of the haze. I wasn't worried about the sky burning out, as I was going to create a new one later.

4. Used 'Colour Variations' to remove some of the blue colour cast of the haze.

5. Set my foreground colour to white, and background to a nice sky blue, then created a new layer called 'sky'

6. With the sky layer slected, I used Filter/Render/Clouds to create a blue sky with nice white clouds.

7. By reducing the opacity of the sky layer slightly, I erased those parts that were covering the land. I then used Image/Transform/Skew to pull the top corners of the sky out and create a perspective effect.

8. Used levels & hue/saturation to improve the colour of sky layer, and reduced its opacity slighty to blend it with the background.

9. Flattened image, final check of levels, then a little sharpening.

Hope you like!

 

[Lensmeister]

Excellent thanks a lot .


I'll print off the instructions at work tomorrow : ) :hail:

Cheers

 

[Luke]

polarizer filter helps here too, it will reduce the moister thats apparent in the air.

 

[bigfatbadger]

The levels in photoshop are heavily influenced by the presence of the foreground, which is well exposed.

Use the magic wand / selection tools to select the 'hazed about section' (or select the forgeround the select -> inverse and then adjust the levels independently.

Does that make sense? All useless if you don't have photoshop of course

 

[Flash Harry]

Heres my quick edit, no funny sky's though, done in PS layers