Help on enhancing my pictures taken on a cloudy day

[Bunzo]

I posted the following in another forum and it was suggested I put the original here and ask for feedback.

The attached picture was taken on a cloudy day. I used PS CS to brighten it somewhat but question whether or not I made the right adjustments.

Suggestions welcome!

My attempt: http://www.pbase.com/image/28359366.jpg

My original: http://www.pbase.com/image/28371508.jpg

[dtrayers]

Haze is tough. You can try using the Unsharp Mask filter with a small amount (20-40) and a large radius (70-80).

You can also try to use the color selector and select the hills in the background, blur the mask a little and use a curves adjustment layer to increase the contrast of the hills. It would be best to do this in 16-bit mode if possible because I suspect you'll have to apply a pretty steep curve and you risk banding or posterizaion in 8-bit mode. Of course, 16-bit mode only works if you can convert from a RAW image again in 16-bit.

[stopbath]

Hmmm.... I like the original best.

Sure the reworked version has a bit more detail in the shadows, but we loose the blacks. There is hardly any deep blacks any more.

Try a slight revision using the curves tool.

[scottbergerphoto]

Try sharpening in two stages:
1. Local Contrast Enhancement: Amt= 10-30, Radius=30-50. T=0
2. Then do your regular USM
Scott

[PacAce]

Try increasing the brightness a tad (+5) and the contrast a little more than a tad (+15). Use curves if you have it.

Then increase the saturation to bring out the colors a little more.

[John_T]

I'd prefer the original too Bunzo. Lots of potential at that location. Go back and try again!

I've been taking the exact same shot every day for the last week at 300mm trying to understand and beat the haze at a 100m distant roof, a 6km distant ferris wheel and 60km distant mountains. The only thing that has helped cut it is a UV filter, very slightly, and a circular polarizer filter, if I'm 90 degrees to the sunlight and spin it until I imagine the haze is reduced, I think.

Haze is due to particles, water, smoke and/or pollutants suspended in the air that block, refract and/or diffuse light proportionate to the amount suspended in the air, and cumulative particles over distance. The closer your subject is the less noticable is the effect of haze, but the diffused light still softens shadows and obliterates detail, since detail is a factor of the sharpness of shadows and shades of colors. The greater the distance, the greater the diffused obliteration of detail. Unless haze burns off, the light is worse from about 10 AM until 3:30 PM since the higher sun just intensifies it, and reduces shadows anyway the higher it gets.

So I find basically there is very little, if anything, to recover behind haze. The details of shadow, light and color never made it through your lens to the sensor. Your photo was made on a cloudy day, first level of diffusion, plus haze in the air, and the spray, double diffusion.

When you take this kind of image into PS, you are chasing ghosts that mostly aren't there, at the same time producing new ghosts that weren't there, probably just revealed noise. You can play with contrast and USM, but that will probably spoil the mood of the original and become obvious in the print.

The point is to put the effort into taking the photo in the first place, and not imagine you're going to make it better in PS.

The other thing I am learning is that the Cyclops camera cannot capture what the stereo-optic, interpolating brained human can, so not to expect that of the camera and certainly not PS.

[Sheri]

Hope you don't mind, I can't resist playing with a nice image in Photoshop. I duplicated the original layer, used the Shadow-Highlight tool, made a 2nd duplicate of the original, set the blend mode to soft light and moved it above the S+H treated layer. Here is the result. Will gladly remove it if you wish.

http://sherisg3.fotopic.net/p4123812.html

Regards,
Sheri

[Meerkat17]

Here's my attempt
http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/untitled.jpg

I used mostly the curves and saturation then I used the levels to lighten the picture and used the History Brush to take out some of the haze

David

[John_T]

Good work Sheri. Should have said it before. I would have left the bridge and road with cars and trucks in the mist and work on binging up the lower half. I might have even blurred the other shore a bit to make the near shore and water the focus.

[John_T]

Exaggerated and the damage is horrible at this lo res, but this what I would have done.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/hosting/data//3694/20945untitled.jpg

[Bunzo]

Thank you all for your replies and helpful input. Each comment was helpful in one way or another.

My final attempt is:

http://www.pbase.com/image/28388496/medium.jpg