Foggy picture...improvements possible??

[bbodine9]

Just wondering if anyone can improve the foggy pictures on the attached link?

Link:http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=39566029

Thanks in advance for the help / education

[Dieter Mayr]

A good help for foggy pictures is filtering the picture with itself.
Filter - Input Image and Filter the same image.
When it is just partially foggy like in the last image maybe a mask can help.

[den]

The histogram equalization and tone mapping of SNS-HDR Lite's 'default' preset followed by preference luminance noise reduction for the micro-contrast rending in the 'foggy' image areas could significantly improve this image set...

SF_Osprey2-1.JPG (25.39 KiB) Viewed 6735 times

A SNS-HDR Lite & PWP discussion is here: http://www.dl-c.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=398

[bbodine9]

Thanks Den..I will have to look into SNS-HDR. Could you post a reworked version along with the original if you have the time? Thanks!

[den]

To do these images any justice with improvements, you need to start from the RAW file or at the very least: full sized 100% quality jpegs. Starting images with the DPR posting resolution versions contain jpeg artifacts which will only get amplified... ...and this message board's posting requirements are such that they do not necessarily show in the illustration above...

...so unless a RAW file can be made available... ...there may not be much to learn here...

[den]

Bruce... I just could not resist!

SNS-HDR Lite & PWP can be an incredible combination even with these low resolution jpegs.

The starting image:

SF_Osprey-ori_400px.jpg (12.01 KiB) Viewed 6627 times

Workflow:
(1) The starting image processed with SNS-HDR Lite's 'default' preset
(2) The resulting(1) image noise reduced using PWP's BilateralSharpen with Amout 65; BR 5; BT 10; SF 20; ST 0
(3) a midtone range Composite-Blend at 67% Amount of the starting image and the resulting(2) image

SF_Osprey-2_final_400px.jpg (20.54 KiB) Viewed 6626 times

The above workflow with minor changes specific to an image seems to be applicable to the other images in this series.

This image series seems to be taken generally where the sun was in front of the camera, so most images tend to be monochromatic... a challenging lighting situation for photographer and camera!!!

[Dieter Mayr]

Here is the version with filtering the image with itself:

SF_Osprey-1.JPG (21.92 KiB) Viewed 6623 times

Personally, I am not a big friend of too much HDR, for my taste the result of Den has too much of HDR, the fog above the ground comes out too pregnant for my taste.
But of course this is a very personal taste.

[bbodine9]

Den and Dieter thanks for your posts, it is always good to see how different methods improve the photo. One's personal taste are always a factor.

[tonygamble]

Den,

"The resulting(1) image noise reduced using PWP's BilateralSharpen with Amout 65; BR 5; BT 10; SF 20; ST 0"

My SF only goes up to 5.

??

Tony

[den]

Thank you Tony... CORRECTION:

"The resulting(1) image noise reduced using PWP's BilateralSharpen with Amout 65; BR 5; BT 10; SF 0.20; ST 0"

Incidently, this use of the BilateralSharpen transform is also applicable for skin smoothing... vary the SF [usually between 0.20 and 0.70] and Amount to preference as needed for a specific image...