STEP BY STEP DISCOVER HOW TO PUMP UP THE MIST

Introduce haze with Adobe Camera Raw to create better compositions without confusing clutter

01 ADJUST THE TONES

Use the Dehaze command in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (or the Camera Raw †lter in Photoshop). To begin, open your RAW image in Camera Raw (or go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop if using a JPG) then make adjustments in the Basic Panel. We reduced the contrast, increased shadows, reduced highlights to —atten out the tones. We reduced Dehaze to add a touch of universal haze.

02 USE NEGATIVE DEHAZE

The Masking Panel allows you to make local adjustments to di erent areas. We can use it to haze the backdrop. Go to the panel, click Linear Gradient then drag it to the middle of the frame to add a gradient. Next, go to the Dehaze slider, reduce it to add a haze to the top half of the image and soften the background trees. Negative Clarity has a softening e ect, so try lowering it too.

03 FINE-TUNE YOUR MASK

The great thing about making masks in Camera Raw or Lightroom is that you can add, subtract or intersect for intricate results. Here, we can remove the tree in the foreground so it isn’t a ected. Click the Subtract button in the Masking Panel and choose Select Objects. Click the Rectangle Select button in the Object panel, then drag a box over the tree. A mask will be generated to exclude the tree.

04 HAZE THE MIDDLE GROUND

Add or reduce the haze e ect by †netuning what’s included in the masks. For our image, we subtracted trees in the mid-ground by dragging boxes over them with the Object Mask tool. But we want to make it look as if the haze gets stronger the further from the camera, so we chose Add > Brush then painted with a low brush density to bring back some haze in these parts.

05 LIFT THE CORNER

A slightly hazy corner helps add depth to the e ect and gives the impression of the sun †ghting through the mist. We used another gradient to lift the right corner. Press G (shortcut for a new gradient mask) then drag in from the corner. Experiment with images by increasing Exposure and decreasing Dehaze. You could also try increasing Temperature to add more warmth to this side.

06 NOW TRY FREE HAZE PRESETS – DOWNLOAD LINK ON THE LEFT

We’ve supplied 10 haze presets for Camera Raw or Lightroom in the project †les (see link to download on left). Each one hazes your image, with some applying a creative colour change. Some presets work with AI Masking to detect the backdrop and add haze. You can adjust the haze or †ne-tune the mask by subtracting a gradient so it only a ects the top of the frame.