TJOtala

These two Photoshop actions can be used to clear haze from digital photographs. Try each to see which one produces better results.

The first action is based on ideas I gained from Dan Margulis‘ excellent book Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace. Basically, it converts the image into LAB color space and then applies curves similar to the ones in Chapter 3 of Dan’s book.

http://tjotala.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/software/photoshop/clearhaze/ClearHazeCurves.jpg;Clear Haze Curve

The second one is based on an idea from one of Robin Bourbounnais’ postings on the SooCool forum. It simply creates a 75% opaque levels adjustment layer with blending mode set to soft light. Note that the levels adjustment isn’t actually applying any levels adjustments; it’s just a cheap way of making an adjustment layer. Nevertheless, you could tweak the effect further by playing with either the opacity or the levels adjustment.

http://tjotala.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/software/photoshop/clearhaze/SoftLightBlend.jpg;Soft Light Blend

Supported Platforms:	Photoshop CS and CS2
Tested Platforms:	Photoshop CS and CS2 on Microsoft Windows XP
Download Link:	ClearHaze.zip (0.84KB)

Installation Instructions

1. Download the ZIP file containing the action(s)
2. Unzip the ZIP file
3. Copy the action(s) to the installation location of your copy of Photoshop, typically at

   C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Presets\Photoshop Actions

   or

   C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Photoshop Actions

4. Select Load Actions... in the actions palette menu
5. Navigate to the folder that contains your actions
6. Select the new action file, and click Load

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 1:12 am and is filed under , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.