Size of dehaze box

Report · Apr 26, 2017

This is an issue that drives me crazy: when I use the dehaze tool a small box with the image comes up in the middle of the screen. The box is far too small and I can't understand for the life of me why there isn't an option to increase the image to full size while I work on the dehazing. Or am I missing something and can the box be made to increase in size? For people like me with less than perfect eyesight such a small box is useless.

Thanks for your input.

Report · Apr 26, 2017

What is the resolution set on your machine?

Though the size of the dehaze dialog cannot be increased, you can change UI scale factor to 200% from Edit > Preferences > Display & Cursors

Now re-launch Editor.

Thanks,

Anwesha

Report · Apr 27, 2017

Thank you for your response Anwesha. My screen is 1900 x 1200 and I am using a mac. I have tried with other photo editing programs changing the resolution, but it them screws everything else up. I can only think that everyone who designs photo editing software has perfect eyesight because some of the fonts on other programs are so tiny you would need a magnifying glass to see them.

Report · Apr 26, 2017

This is an issue that drives me crazy: when I use the dehaze tool a small box with the image comes up in the middle of the screen. The box is far too small and I can't understand for the life of me why there isn't an option to increase the image to full size while I work on the dehazing. Or am I missing something and can the box be made to increase in size? For people like me with less than perfect eyesight such a small box is useless.

If you say "a small box", I believe Anwesha is on the right track, your display is probably not optimal for your eyesight. For me, the dehaze Window is not small, it's more than a quarter of the screen area. That's good enough to judge both the detail level and the global effect on the full image. I don't need the 'trial and error' method to find the precise setting for the image.

Let's jump first to the technical (and artistic) explanation.

When you apply various enhancements or filters, like sharpening, levels, shake reduction, black and white conversion or many filters like noise reduction, the math calculations can be relatively simple or very complicated. Some are very quick, some may require ten seconds... On the other hand, the desired effect can be assessed when looking at a small area (sharpening or denoising) or at the whole image (that's the case for dehaze). To speed up the process, the dialogs can show the effect on a small part of the image; the moves of your sliders are nearly shown 'real time'. That's why you find different ways to show the effects depending on your tool or effect. The new 'dehaze' and 'shake reduction' processes are very low to process, but they require both a full image view and enough detail since they tend to produce unwanted artifacts if set too high.

Tip:

Apply the effect to a layer copy and use the opacity setting of the layer once the effect is applied. You can vary the intensity of the correction finely while zooming in as much as needed to control detail quality.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

Thank you for your response Michel. It is about a quarter of the screen on mine, but I find that far too small. When I am trying to judge the effects on an image it can be very difficult. Thank you for the tip on putting the dehaze on a different layer as that will help with the problem.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

I have attached a screen shot so that you can see what I see.

When I click OK, I frequently find that I have not applied the correct amount because it is so difficult to see the detail.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

On a mac you can zoom in the screen using one of the shortcuts shown in System Preferences>Accessibility>Zoom.

I have mine set to use the Scroll Wheel plus Control.

Not a perfect solution of course, but might help seeing the image a little larger.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

Thank you R-Kelly. I had never used that option and it will be really good not just for this use, but for other uses as well.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

My screen is 1900 x 1200

Is it a desktop or a laptop display? My desktop is also 1920 x 1200, but it is 24". That's enough for me to judge the 'dehaze' effect, which is 'global'; it's a local contrast enhancement which requires seeing the entire image. Viewing the details is just to ensure there is no harmful artifacts on edges or contours. Those artifacts can be seen on the resulting full image after the effect is applied. The preview is close enough for me on the desktop but I would need a magnifying glass to judge on a moderate size laptop screen !

That's why I think that the problem is not with the 'dehaze' window, it's about what can be done in general to help people with impaired vision to work comfortably with Elements (such as the good suggestion by R_Kelly).

If you are using the 'dehaze' feature frequently, I suggest to test other similar effects to increase local contrast.

- menu Enhance >> Unsharp mask with 10 to 20 amount and 50 radius

- or if you know the high pass sharpening method, use a large amount as well

- or open your files in the ACR module (even if they are not raw files, that works for jpegs also), and use the clarity slider.

Report · Apr 27, 2017

Thanks for your further input Michel. It is a 25.5 inch screen. I don't use the dehaze often, but when I do I find it frustrating because of the small size of the box. Personally I wouldn't mind waiting longer for it to process a bigger image and I think that option should be included.

I always shoot raw and use the ACR module and then bring it into Elements. I am waiting to see what is in the new disk edition of lightroom, if and when it is brought out, and might upgrade to that to give me more options for editing images.