help me fix this image

[Volatile]

I'm working on a large pano that I plan to print and frame as a farewell gift for a friend of mine. I took this nice 21-picture pano of the Koolau mountains on a clear morning (it's usually mauka clouds), but there's some haze affecting the distant mountains.

Working locally, I can correct the colors to make the mountains a vibrant green, but applying that would wreck the foreground. A further complication is the left-side light source, which whitens out the left side.

How can I adjust the image to make the colors even throughout?

Below are some parts of the pano that hopefully illustrate what I need to do. Please ignore the low quality of the jpgs, I had to keep the filesize below 250KB.......

Thanks for looking....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/Volatile/Canon%20forum/panosample.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/Volatile/Canon%20forum/panosample2.jpg

[tim]

Select the part of the image that has the wrong color (lassoo tool or magic wand), then choose Image | Adjustments | Color Ballance. Drag the sliders around until it looks right. Could be tricky, don't have time to try it myself sorry.

[PhotosGuy]

I'd use layer masks to make the changes to the part of the image that needs them, then reduce the opacity of the layer 'till it looks right.
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=166
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=63
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=139

[Chazs]

Something else to try. Duplicate the layer of the pan. On that new layer increase the contrast and saturation of the distant hills to what you want. Don't worry about mussing up the rest of the photo. Click on the history brush (change the size to fairly large, and soft). Click the little square box on the History next to the last adjustments. Then click on a history before the changes (the picture should change back to the original look). Now you can paint over the mountains and repaint just the parts you want more contrast and saturation. You can also change the Opacity of the brush so it doesn't make such a drastic change. Once done, adjust the opacity of the new layer to what looks natural. It took me a while to figure out the history brush, but it works pretty nice on this kind of application.

Here's an extreme example of your pan. I painted some contrast on the hills and water. Granted, the water looks unnatural, but you can see just the hills and water are affected, and the foreground was untouched.

[FlyingPete]

Something else to try. Duplicate the layer of the pan. On that new layer increase the contrast and saturation of the distant hills to what you want. Don't worry about mussing up the rest of the photo. Click on the history brush (change the size to fairly large, and soft). Click the little square box on the History next to the last adjustments. Then click on a history before the changes (the picture should change back to the original look). Now you can paint over the mountains and repaint just the parts you want more contrast and saturation. You can also change the Opacity of the brush so it doesn't make such a drastic change. Once done, adjust the opacity of the new layer to what looks natural. It took me a while to figure out the history brush, but it works pretty nice on this kind of application.

Here's an extreme example of your pan. I painted some contrast on the hills and water. Granted, the water looks unnatural, but you can see just the hills and water are affected, and the foreground was untouched.

I have been using Photoshop for 7 years now and I didn't know that trick, I'm off home to try it out....

[Volatile]

Thanks for the tips and ideas. I've heard about the history brush, but never tried it, probably because I never understood it. The way you describe it, it makes more sense. Unfortunately, I'm going out of town and can't try it for a week.

Thanks again though...