Kyoto view from Fushimi Inari

Suzumushi · Jul 10, 2008

I should have waited for it to get darker for the first shot, but I didn't want to have to walk back down from there in the dark.

manaheim · Jul 11, 2008

The haze of the first shot kills it for me... the foreground may be a touch dark, too, though you probably wouldn't notice if the haze wasn't there. Haze plays hell with shots like this. Very annoying, so I feel your pain.

Second shot looks neat, but a touch dark to be able to see the detail of the subject... I wonder if your monitor needs some adjustment.

Suzumushi · Jul 11, 2008

Yeah, I tried to bring up the foreground a bit and to sharpen the background, but I couldn't get rid of that hazy look. I guess because the haze was actually part of the scene rather than something the camera did. I may revisit this one in PS.

eravedesigns · Jul 11, 2008

I am not sure if you camera has it or not but my sony A700 and the sony line of DSLR's has a DR setting for Dynamic Range where you turn it on or to higher settings for landscape shots and haze cause it apparently corrects it before it saves it on the camera and it also helps for shooting into the sun. Check out your manual to see if you have something like that.

manaheim · Jul 11, 2008

Suzumushi said:
Yeah, I tried to bring up the foreground a bit and to sharpen the background, but I couldn't get rid of that hazy look. I guess because the haze was actually part of the scene rather than something the camera did. I may revisit this one in PS.

FYI (and I find this inexplicable btw), Photoshop's auto-levels does a pretty good job dealing with haze. I never use it for anything else, but I discovered this when dealing with another photoshoot. I don't think it's going to be a cureall for you, since that is a LOT of haze... like I think the haze has utterly blotted out your subject... but it might be interesting to see what it does.

manaheim · Jul 11, 2008

Hm... I tried it myself and it didn't do too much. I also did a quick search on removing haze in photoshop (never occurred to me before... duh). I came up with this...

http://www.jakeludington.com/photography/20060921_fixing_haze_in_digital_photos.html

This DID work on some of my photos, but didn't have enough impact on yours. I think, as I said before, there is just TOO much in your shots.

The better bet might have been to try to figure out a way to play off the haze and make it a part of the shot in some way, though I couldn't say how to do that.

As I say, haze befuddles me. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

By the way, just for fun I worked on that other image a touch. Not perfect, but better I think... may almost be a touch too bright.

Brighten+40, Unsharp Mask: 40%, Radius: 1.2, Threshold: 0