Dehaze, texture, and Clarity are doing what?

[larry45]

The one that impresses me the most is dehaze. It's almost like it makes a mask for you on the fly and darkens the background, get the clouds visible etc.. amazing too… when was the invented, and how do they do it? Kind of revolutionary no?

And texture is sort of sharpening?  And clarity is…?

[Per Berntsen]

Dehaze was introduced in Camera Raw version 9.1, and in Lightroom CC 2015.1.

Lightroom CC 2015 was the first subscription version of Lightroom. For some time, it was also possible to buy the standalone version Lightroom 6, which was the same program as CC 2015, but it was missing some features, like Dehaze.

Someone made a free develop preset that did the same thing using the available Develop sliders in Lightroom 6.

https://proloststore.com/products/dehaze

The Texture and Clarity sliders both affect local contrast, but in different ways.

Neither of them increase sharpness, but Texture may give the impression of increased sharpness.

They can both be used with negative values to reduce contrast and apparent sharpness.

https://jkost.com/blog/2022/03/texture-clarity-and-dehaze-in-lightroom-classic.html

[larry45]

Per thanks, helps. Julianne's artile is good though may have to re-read it a few times.

Before dehaze, what would you do?  Make a mask to darken the sky and leave foreground alone?

Texture/ Clairy still confusing, but here article will probably help a bit.

[Per Berntsen]

If you do some research, you may be able to find out exactly what the preset from Prolost did.

I hardly ever use Dehaze, I prefer a natural rendering, and am not interested in creating effects.

I sometimes use Texture with a negative value to make a sky smoother, especially when working with scans from old negatives.

To me, Clarity is the most useful of the three, and I use it quite a lot.

If you're aiming for a natural look, all three should IMO be uses conservatively, especially Dehaze and Texture.

The easiest way to find out what these features do is to experiment with them, and view the image at 100%.

[larry45]

Thanks per why find Clarity most useful and how do you define what clarity does?  (compared to the others)

[Conrad C · Accepted solution]

Before dehaze, what would you do?  Make a mask to darken the sky and leave foreground alone?

By @larry45

The article says “The Dehaze technology is based on a physical model of how light is transmitted, and tries to estimate light that is lost due to absorption and scattering through the atmosphere.” This is not easily reproducible with traditional Photoshop techniques, unless you’re willing to isolate areas of the image based on depth and increase your simulated haze effect at different distances from the viewer.

Texture/ Clairy still confusing, but here article will probably help a bit.

By @larry45

The way I see it, Texture, Clarity, and Sharpness are all variations on the same methods of boosting local contrast, especially along edges, and not related to Dehaze. To some extent they are all similar to the Unsharp Mask and High Pass sharpening methods used for over 20 years in Photoshop, but a lot easier to use. The main difference between the three is what detail frequency they address.

Sharpness, introduced first, addresses the finest details. Clarity, introduced later, addresses much coarser details (lower detail frequencies.) Texture, introduced most recently, addresses detail frequencies between Sharpness and Clarity. Because they address different levels of detail, it’s reasonable to use all three in one image. But because Texture and Clarity can accentuate noise in broad areas such as skies and skin, many recommend applying Texture and Clarity only through a mask, only to the areas you want to enhance — usually not to an entire image.

One other thing about Dehaze. It has such a powerful effect that a lot of novices run to it first. I think this is a mistake because of some of the side effects of applying too much Dehaze. You should start image corrections using the second group of options in the Basic panel (Exposure, Contrast…), then if needed Texture and Clarity through masks, and then last, and only if needed, Curve and/or Dehaze.

I use Dehaze on very few images, and rarely use a value over 5 or 10. I am more likely to increase Dehaze above that if it’s an actual image of fog or haze and I really want to cut through it. But for normal image editing, a high Dehaze value is kind of a blunt instrument.

[larry45]

Thanks Conrad, lot to absorb and those intracacies are very hairy to understand, even for someone using PS for years; but I'm sure they are all real/ valid!

Dehaze though something  is else beyond,   clarity/ texture (which still dont really understadn those two, sort blend of conrast and sharpening?) becuase with dehaze , I can see mountains in backbround clearly all of the sudden without effecting foreground.. What would that take in old days?.. very complex masking or graidents?  I would not bother usually pre dehaze. so much work....

[D Fosse]

Clarity is simply sharpening with extremely high pixel radius, so that it works on whole areas rather than just edges.

Texture reduces the radius a bit.

Both can sometimes be useful.

Dehaze is one feature I don't touch with a pole, ever. It's a recipe for unnatural-looking and obviously faked images.

[larry45]

D, thanks, interesting but with dehaze, I can then get contrast in back part of a landscape (on a mountain range or seomthing in the background that looks terrible, washed out)  that would take an enourmous effort with draining slection, masking etc... and I don't think too bad if judicious..    I still dont get how they do that... like they create a selection/ mask on the fly?

[TheDigitalDog]

 and I don't think too bad if judicious..    

By @larry45

+1 I find no issues with Dehaze when used (IMHO) sparingly and often, with post-Dehaze adjustments.  Clearly, the Adobe team and many customers feel this way. 

[larry45]

Good call Andrew and for you, or others this final question on dehaze:

It's like they create a selection/ mask / or gradient?   on the fly?  PS, dehaze, knows to create contrast on a flat part of image, yet keep the other part of the image normal?   Quite amazing to me.

[TheDigitalDog]

It's like they create a selection/ mask / or gradient?   on the fly?  PS, dehaze, knows to create contrast on a flat part of image, yet keep the other part of the image normal?   Quite amazing to me.

By @larry45

Without access to the source code (which I wouldn't understand anyway), short of a nontechnical answer for an Adobe engineer like Eric Chan, I have no idea what's happening under the hood. Nor really need to. I just move the sliders/edits until I get what I want. 

Creating a selection/ mask / or gradient on the fly isn't a big deal, it's down elsewhere in the product (sometimes by the user!). But again, I have no idea what's happening, I'm just happy it can. 

[TheDigitalDog]

As for Clarity, that's simple. At least what it is based upon, what it is doing (more or less):

https://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1223083

Based on Mac Holberts old Photoshop Midtone Contrast which you can still apply today with his free Action(s).