Haze in LAX Spotting Trip Photos

[tlabranche]

I am sure everyone is battling the annoying atmosphere haze in your photos from LAX this past weekend. I wanted to share a quick tip that I use to get rid of it - or highly minimize it. You can add a ton of contrast or add blacks, but that will blow out your shadows and cause gradient banding. When editing the photo, just add normal contrast you would use and a pinch of black in Camera Raw. When you're in Photoshop do the following.

Duplicate layer
Add a curves layer adjustment
Change blending mode to Soft Light
Adjust the opacity until you see a desirable result

Below are a couple of before and after images.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/10429733085_af193bfbd3_b.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3719/10429860433_4dcc6b46fc_b.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5545/10429800396_71d215dced_b.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3756/10429941343_f152462817_b.jpg

[Zee71]

Thanks for the tip Tim! I am sure the ground shots I took at LAX will have heat haze galore. So I will give it a try using your post processing technique. Thanks!

[Aviation.High.Guy]

Thanks. Great tip for NYC haze too!!

[JDANDO]

There was haze on Monday as well. I will have to give your method a try!

[gonzalu]

Great tip Tim, and I am sure you meant to say "crush" your shadows and "blow" your whites :tongue:

...seriously though, since this is a technical post... Since we are only manipulating data in digital, the terms come from what is happening to the data... blacks get crushed because the data is literally gone, nothing zip zilch... the whites blow out because there is too much data... in 8 bits, we get to 255 and then bam, too much.

Tim, do you like the Curves tool as much as do? I consider it a scalpel in the world of the Brightness/Contrast Machete... lol.