Fix Skies In Lightroom With Dehaze

The Dehaze Tool Does More Than Remove Fog;it Can Bring Flat Skies to Life, as Jordan Butters Reveals…

- Jordan Butters

THE PRIMARY FUNCTION of Adobe’s Dehaze tool, as introduced to Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC and Photoshop Elements 14 in 2015, is to cut through haze, fog and mist in images. If you’ve an earlier version of Photoshop or Lightroom, then sadly the Dehaze tool isn’t available, however there are some good filters and plug-ins available online that mimic the effect.

The Dehaze tool works by assessing the contrast in an image and applying corrections based on a physical model of how light is transmitted, therefore its effect differs from image to image. As well as removing haze and mist, it can also be used to bump up contrast in images that aren’t affected by traditional atmospheric haze, for example scenes containing smoke, or even images of the night sky. And, as you’ll see below, Dehaze is also a fantastic tool in Lightroom for making flat skies in your landscape images really pop.

1 BASIC ADJUSTMENTS