Removing haze from photos

[d3sparks]

I'm looking for ideas on the best way to remove the haze like is seen in the following photograph. The church this wedding was in had windows floor to ceiling across the entire back of the alter - it made silhouetted shots simple, but I'm trying to see what I can salvage from the shots exposed more for the subjects themselves.

I have had some success using two techniques (1) a levels adjustment layer modifying the shadow input level for the green and blue channel, and (2) a curves adjustment layer with the blend mode set to soft light. These do a decent job with the haze but I'm not entirely happy with the results - wondering if anyone has any magic for this.

Thanks in advance!

[johnastovall]

It looks like a blow out Contre-jour shot than haze. Have you tried layer blending?

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

It looks like a blow out Contre-jour shot than haze. Have you tried layer blending?

John, It does look like a fairly good Contre-jour technique. I have done it many times before, all by mistake.

Don, I don't think this is a haze issue, unless they had pyrotechnics going off during the ceremony. Although the blue cast makes it look like might be haze. This is more color balance issue. Interior lights at about 3200° K and the exterior light bleeding back in your image at about 7000° K is causing the problem. Here are some ideas to improve your image:

When I do a simple color balance on the image adding Yellow and Red in the midtones and highlights and pushing the gray slider to make a gamma adjustment in Levels, I get a better pleasing image. Not perfect by any means but better on the eye. The blacks have blocked up in the men's coats however.


Another idea is to convert it to B&W. Using only the Red Channel in Channel Mixer with the monochrome checked you a very nice B&W that doesn't glow back at you.

[S-Man]

Usually when dealing with haze or the little lens flare that gives the hazy, cloudy effect, I'll up the contrast alot and it helps to cut down on the haze. That and increase the blacks.

[Phototx]

Heres a quick edit done in Camera Raw. Changed the contrast and used the targeted adjustment tool to remove some of the blue halo efect. Probably needs more work. The dress has details but the skin tones are not quite right.

Glen

[andyz]

I played with this when it was posted and could cut through the haze some, but the B&W treatment is the best. Color isn't adding to the shot anyway.

[rebardwg]

how would you reshoot this shot so the windows arent blown out?

[epoh]

Originally Posted by rebardwg

how would you reshoot this shot so the windows arent blown out?

As far as I know the only way to have the couple exposed properly and not have the windows blown out is an HDR composite of two shots - one with the couple exposed properly, and another setup for the windows. This is assuming flash inside the church was a no-go.

[MicWayWal]

This response is assuming I could not use flash during the ceremony.

In film days the background bleeding around the subject was not too bad. A little soft and dreamy looking but not objectionable. But with digital the problem seems worse.

When I first starting shooting weddings with digital in 2000 I knew this was going to be a big problem. I would decide where I was going to put my camera for the ceremony shots and before the ceremony I would shoot several of just the background at closeup, medium and full length shots exposed for the background. This gave me a clean shot of the background with no people that I could use to sandwich and mask in the ceremony shots. But I still had the problem of the light bleeding around the subject.

Now I use the auto bracket feature for every exposure. I set my camera up so it will shoot 3 images in a row in 1.5 or 2 stop increments depending on how bright the scene. The first for a proper exposed for the people, then 1.5 or 2 down, then 1.5 or 2 down again. For every image I want I rip off three exposures in a row. There is so little movement it is not a problem. Il then composite the exposures together. NOT and HDR merge a composite. I then mask off the top two layers and bring in the best values that I have for the image.