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Photography Question 

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Photo Haze


l have taken some aerial shots on a beautiful sunny day out of a open plane window,downloaded the images and every shot of the city had a haze or UV l tried to get ride of it in photoshop by increasing the contrast but still it was there l also have a uv filter on my lens but that didnt work..do you have any suggestions what l can do pre production or post production...Thank You


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September 25, 2007

 

Alan N. Marcus
  Hi Geprge,

UV or haze filters are commonly mounted on cameras. Their popularity in due in no small part to the desire of merchants to generate additional revenue. Most often we are persuade to by these filters to protect our valuable lenses. You should know that a filter degrades the optical quality of a camera. Use of a filter should be based on a desire to gain a creative effect.

Landscapes and aerial view often come out veiled by a bluish haze. This is caused by scattered sunlight as it encounters dust and water vapor. Blue light with its short wavelength is most affected. That’s why the sky appears blue. Even shorter are the ultraviolet light frequencies. We can’t see this light as our eyes are insensitive to these short wavelengths but film and the digital chips can because UV light is the most energetic. Ultraviolet causes you to end up with more haze in your pictures than you saw when you took the picture.

You can reduce haze by mounting a UV filter which stops much of the UV before it enters the camera. On the other hand a Skylight cuts some haze and because its slightly reddish it has a slight warming effect which can counter some of the bluishness cast.

Sorry to report that the effect of haze cutting filters is minimal except at extremely high altitudes.

Alan Marcus (questionable techno babble)
ammarcus@earthlink.net


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September 25, 2007

 

Todd Bennett
  To add a little to what Alan has said; most aerial photogs I have dealt with or spoken with use a polorizing filter to help cut through some of the haze. My experience with aerial photography is that it will help; but, will not completely get rid of it. In a perfect world you'd be able to go up just after a fast moving cold front blows through and cleans the air of all the dust, smog, etc. Very hard to time these just right and if you are able to, be ready for a bumpy ride.


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September 25, 2007

 
- Reynaldo D. Reyes

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  You can try this on photoshop and see if it reduces the haze and tell me if it helps even a little bit.

With Unsharp Mask
Amount of Stength: 20%
Radius: 50 Pixels
Threshold (Clipping) : 0


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September 25, 2007

 
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