Posted by Tom Nevesely on September 11, 2009 at 3:48 PM
I'm not a big fan of uneven blue skies when using a polarizer on wide angle lenses. I like effect of a polarizer on the landscape but not on the sky. An example here: http://www.tnphoto.ca/photos/Rockies/_mg_8486.htm
I've played around in Photoshop and couldn't figure out a good way of evening out the sky. I was hoping someone here would be kind enough to share their method of fixing unevenly polarized skies.
If you want a polarized landscape, but not sky, the easy solution is to shoot with and without polarization and blend in PS. It's hard to correct for heavily polarized skies in PS, but with some curves work and sometimes color adjustments you can often reduce the impact quite a bit. I don't know of any particular techniques, perhaps someone else does?
Posted by Kenn Leonhardt on September 11, 2009 at 4:08 PM
My methods vary from image to image, but it's generally just a matter of switching between the burn and dodge tools, and occasionally implementing a masked adjustment layer or two (exposure and/or levels layers).
With such strong polarization in that photo you linked, it'd take quite a bit of tinkering around to get the gradients and colours to match up perfectly and eliminate all evidence of the polarizer. However, if you don't mind having some polarizer evidence, some very quick dodging of the darkest areas and burning of the lighter areas would suffice. The key is to not rely on just dodging, or just burning, but rather to do both to bring things to a middle ground.
Posted by David Bostedo on September 11, 2009 at 4:55 PM
I would suggest a curves layer, or exposure comp layer, with a mask. Use a circular gradient centered just off the image and adjust the layer properties to suit. You may still need to touch it up afterward, but I would think that would get you close. I'll give it a shot if I get a chance.
Posted by David Bostedo on September 11, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Tom - Here's what I wound up with after a couple of minutes and the steps :
1. Created a curves adjustment layer with layer mask
2. Created a white-to-black circular gradient starting just off the image and dragging down about halfway into the image straight through the darkest area of the sky
3. Selected the non-sky area and painted it all black in the layer mask
3. Made a fairly large curves adjustment to bring that part of the sky up to the brighter areas
Now it only corrects for the darkest part of the sky - not really evening it out perfectly or anything. But maybe it leads down the right path.
This also left some posterization (looks like its there beforehand) and could use some touch up - especially on the full size file. But I think it got close. But I don't find some polarization objectionable.
I'll also post the curve and layer mask.
Posted by David Bostedo on September 11, 2009 at 7:43 PM
The layer mask...
Posted by David Bostedo on September 11, 2009 at 7:44 PM
The curve...
Posted by Tom Nevesely on September 11, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Thanks guys, especially you David!
I'm going to experiment with this technique over the weekend; I learn best by doing.
Floris, I thought about blending a polarized and a non polarized image. I actually took some shot like this but I haven't had time to process them.
Thanks again!
I find that a selective color adjustment layer can work wonders on over polarized skies.
After creating a selective color layer, select the "whites" from the dropdown menu and add a heavy dose of black. It will darken the unpolarized areas, and is somewhat self-feathering. A lot of the time thats all that is needed to fix the problem, but sometimes you will need to use masking the same way David described.
This is a pretty severe case, and I'd imagine that you'd have to add black to the whites to darken the unpolarized areas, and reduce the amount of black in the blues to try and meet the two extremes somewhere in the middle.
Hopefully that all makes sense. Put black in the whites, and subtract it from the blues.....sounds confusing even to myself!
Posted by Andreas Resch on September 12, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Hi!
I've got two little things to add ...
*) I found Nik Viveza to do a great job in evening out uneven blue skies. If that's a problem you run into often, you might want to think about acquiring it.
*) I switch to Lab mode when I adjust the sky colors with curves or mask. The "L", "a" and "b" values are very nice to read with the color-picker and you can see where there are still problems with the values and adjust the masks or curves accordingly.
We prefer Selective Color rather than curves, along with the gradient. It works especially well for polarizer skies and is a whole lot less fiddly. Just open a Selective Color adjustment layer, then use the black sliders in the blue and cyan channels to make your adjustments. If you want, you can use the black slider in the white channel to adjust clouds. Waaaaaaaay easier than curves, and for my eye, the results are a lot more pleasing and natural.
Posted by Paul Wegemann on September 13, 2009 at 9:42 AM
I've used Hank's method with great success, especially on panos.
Posted by Aurora Sophos on September 18, 2009 at 10:16 PM
Wow! That's really good. I've been trying to accumulate all the photography tips especially when I was still trying to learn photoshop. I am not an expert yet. I'm still trying to learn photoshop layers. Also, I'm interested with any links where I can download photoshop brushes. It will be most welcome.
Posted by Austin Booth on September 25, 2009 at 9:08 PM
I haven't used the selective color method but here is an example of one my my photos which suffered from a severe case of uneven polarized skies. I used one raw file here and used a darker layer underneath the top one to darken the bright areas of the sky. I used the circular gradient tool to fix it. So if you are good with layers and masks and shoot raw you can fix it if you put enough time an effort into it. I do like the idea of one polarized image for the foreground and one without the polarizer for the sky and blending the two. Anyway here is a link to my before and after picture:
(just so it doesn't confuse you I also fixed a tilted horizon in the after picture)
Posted by David Jenne on October 1, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Tom- This bugs me every time I use a polarizer on a wide-angle lens and this is how I deal with it:
1. Use the eyedropper to take a sample of a blue about halfway between the most polarized blue in the center and the least polarized at the edges. Your foreground color should now be blue.
2. Go to the layer adjustment panel and chose "Solid Color"
3. You now have a solid blue layer with a mask. The mask is the key to this technique a and Id be happy to work with you more off line if you need more information on making the mask layer do what you want, but basically its this:
A. Hit the D key to bring your colors back to default,then hit X key to reverse them, now you have white in front, black as background.
B. Hit the G key to bring up the Gradient tool. Click the gradient preview in the top left of your screen like you were going to edit the current gradient and select "Foreground to Transparent". You should have a gradient that goes from white to checkerboard showing the transparency.
C. In your Layers panel, Click on the mask portion of the Solid Color layer to edit it. Fill it with black by hitting "Command- (or Control on PC) Delete".
D. Use the Gradient tool to draw a gradient that roughly goes from the top of the image to the horizon in the image... this is the starting point. Next use a really wide, soft brush with black to to block out the rest of the layer below the horizon and to block it out along the outlines of the mountains. Use progressivle smaller and smaller brushes as you work into more detailed areas around the mountains. To get the sharp outline of the trees on the right side of the image to mask out is tricky but basically is accomplished by making a temporary levels adjustment and a temporary desaturation to get a high contrast silouette of the trees (black against white) and copy and paste that into your mask.
Masking is a lot easier to do than it may seem by reading this post -- and to me is the holy grail of working in P-shop. I really urge anyone really wanting to make the most of P-shop to seek out and learn as much as you can about creating and using masks.
This is the Mask I ended up with after about 5 min work:
<a href="http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/maskused.png">http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/maskused.png</a>
This is your image I after I employed the above technique:
<a href="http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/solidcolorlayer.png">http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/solidcolorlayer.png</a>
Lastly, these tutorials at Photofocus.com might be of use in explaining this technique better than I am here:
Usually simple dodging and sponging techniques in 16 bit lab color space works for me.
Posted by David Taylor on October 26, 2009 at 11:13 PM
I'm just going to put this out there. But it's a great shot! I don't find the sky gradation at all distracting from the subject. Nicely done!
I'm thinking that blending a polarized shot with an unpolarized shot may be difficult, because you are bound to nudge the lens/camera while installing/removing/rotating the polarizer between shots.
I wonder (and I'm just as guilty of this as the next photog), are we becoming too fixated on minor issues? I worry that too much manipulation trying to solve this "issue", might destroy the quality & effect that are in the original (again, in spades!). There's a great post on Chase Jarvis's website that relates to the pursuit of perfection at the expense of emotion. If you haven't checked Chase's site out recently (or ever) - do it. He's extremely talented, passionate, and a tad bit crazy. Which is what we all should aspire to.
Here's a link to his discussion on perfection vs emotion & creativity. Very interesting stuff! This post is actually done by one of his crew.
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/02/scotts-guest-blog-creative-post.html
Posted by Chikku Baiju on January 13, 2010 at 12:40 PM
I am no expert in this field, but the way I do it is by using the Nik software plugin called Viveza. Its an awesome tool, which only has one function, but something that will get rid of a lot of masking and layers. I think every landscape photog should have this tool, because this will shorten the processing time a lot. Check it out in their website; http://www.niksoftware.com/viveza/usa/entry.php
Posted by Tom Nevesely on January 13, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Thanks for the tip Chikku. I just recently bought the complete collection from Nik so I have Viveza at my disposal. I haven't played with any of the Nik software yet though. Do you have any tips for doing this with Viveza?
Also, I realize that this is kind of late, but THANK YOU to everyone who replied to this thread. For some reason I thought I had replied and now I see I had not. Sorry everyone, I really do appreciate the help!
Posted by Larry Puckett on January 19, 2010 at 10:56 AM
Hank--tried your method and it is simple, fast, and effective. Thanks for the tip--Larry
Discussion
19 repliesI've played around in Photoshop and couldn't figure out a good way of evening out the sky. I was hoping someone here would be kind enough to share their method of fixing unevenly polarized skies.
With such strong polarization in that photo you linked, it'd take quite a bit of tinkering around to get the gradients and colours to match up perfectly and eliminate all evidence of the polarizer. However, if you don't mind having some polarizer evidence, some very quick dodging of the darkest areas and burning of the lighter areas would suffice. The key is to not rely on just dodging, or just burning, but rather to do both to bring things to a middle ground.
1. Created a curves adjustment layer with layer mask
2. Created a white-to-black circular gradient starting just off the image and dragging down about halfway into the image straight through the darkest area of the sky
3. Selected the non-sky area and painted it all black in the layer mask
3. Made a fairly large curves adjustment to bring that part of the sky up to the brighter areas
Now it only corrects for the darkest part of the sky - not really evening it out perfectly or anything. But maybe it leads down the right path.
This also left some posterization (looks like its there beforehand) and could use some touch up - especially on the full size file. But I think it got close. But I don't find some polarization objectionable.
I'll also post the curve and layer mask.
I'm going to experiment with this technique over the weekend; I learn best by doing.
Floris, I thought about blending a polarized and a non polarized image. I actually took some shot like this but I haven't had time to process them.
Thanks again!
After creating a selective color layer, select the "whites" from the dropdown menu and add a heavy dose of black. It will darken the unpolarized areas, and is somewhat self-feathering. A lot of the time thats all that is needed to fix the problem, but sometimes you will need to use masking the same way David described.
This is a pretty severe case, and I'd imagine that you'd have to add black to the whites to darken the unpolarized areas, and reduce the amount of black in the blues to try and meet the two extremes somewhere in the middle.
Hopefully that all makes sense. Put black in the whites, and subtract it from the blues.....sounds confusing even to myself!
I've got two little things to add ...
*) I found Nik Viveza to do a great job in evening out uneven blue skies. If that's a problem you run into often, you might want to think about acquiring it.
*) I switch to Lab mode when I adjust the sky colors with curves or mask. The "L", "a" and "b" values are very nice to read with the color-picker and you can see where there are still problems with the values and adjust the masks or curves accordingly.
Good luck ... Andreas.
Thanks!
Aurora Sophos
Want to Learn Photoshop? Click Here
http://www.austinbooth.com/pnwnp/before-after.jpg
(just so it doesn't confuse you I also fixed a tilted horizon in the after picture)
1. Use the eyedropper to take a sample of a blue about halfway between the most polarized blue in the center and the least polarized at the edges. Your foreground color should now be blue.
2. Go to the layer adjustment panel and chose "Solid Color"
3. You now have a solid blue layer with a mask. The mask is the key to this technique a and Id be happy to work with you more off line if you need more information on making the mask layer do what you want, but basically its this:
A. Hit the D key to bring your colors back to default,then hit X key to reverse them, now you have white in front, black as background.
B. Hit the G key to bring up the Gradient tool. Click the gradient preview in the top left of your screen like you were going to edit the current gradient and select "Foreground to Transparent". You should have a gradient that goes from white to checkerboard showing the transparency.
C. In your Layers panel, Click on the mask portion of the Solid Color layer to edit it. Fill it with black by hitting "Command- (or Control on PC) Delete".
D. Use the Gradient tool to draw a gradient that roughly goes from the top of the image to the horizon in the image... this is the starting point. Next use a really wide, soft brush with black to to block out the rest of the layer below the horizon and to block it out along the outlines of the mountains. Use progressivle smaller and smaller brushes as you work into more detailed areas around the mountains. To get the sharp outline of the trees on the right side of the image to mask out is tricky but basically is accomplished by making a temporary levels adjustment and a temporary desaturation to get a high contrast silouette of the trees (black against white) and copy and paste that into your mask.
Masking is a lot easier to do than it may seem by reading this post -- and to me is the holy grail of working in P-shop. I really urge anyone really wanting to make the most of P-shop to seek out and learn as much as you can about creating and using masks.
This is the Mask I ended up with after about 5 min work:
<a href="http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/maskused.png">http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/maskused.png</a>
This is your image I after I employed the above technique:
<a href="http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/solidcolorlayer.png">http://www.shadowmountaingraphics.com/images/solidcolorlayer.png</a>
Lastly, these tutorials at Photofocus.com might be of use in explaining this technique better than I am here:
http://photofocus.smugmug.com/Photography/Photofocuscom-Videos/8254015_JkQbc#662010752_N7aeu-A-LB
Hope this is of some help.
best regards,
david
David Jenne
Creative Director
Shadow Mountain Graphics
www.shadowmountaingraphics.com
I'm thinking that blending a polarized shot with an unpolarized shot may be difficult, because you are bound to nudge the lens/camera while installing/removing/rotating the polarizer between shots.
I wonder (and I'm just as guilty of this as the next photog), are we becoming too fixated on minor issues? I worry that too much manipulation trying to solve this "issue", might destroy the quality & effect that are in the original (again, in spades!). There's a great post on Chase Jarvis's website that relates to the pursuit of perfection at the expense of emotion. If you haven't checked Chase's site out recently (or ever) - do it. He's extremely talented, passionate, and a tad bit crazy. Which is what we all should aspire to.
Here's a link to his discussion on perfection vs emotion & creativity. Very interesting stuff! This post is actually done by one of his crew.
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2009/02/scotts-guest-blog-creative-post.html
Also, I realize that this is kind of late, but THANK YOU to everyone who replied to this thread. For some reason I thought I had replied and now I see I had not.