While I was up in Stanley Idaho there was lots of smoke coming from two local fires and some from California. Needless to say, shooting beautiful landscapes in these conditions can be really hard. So here's a couple tips on how to get an image without any smoke. As an ethical disclaimer I always believe it is better to show the scene as it was but this can be an important skill if you are on the job or just simple dislike it.
The two biggest tools you have if you are using Lightroom is the dehaze and clarity sliders. Yes it may seem obvious to use these sliders but the trick is making the result look realistic, these tools over saturate, over contrast, and create color shifts which can ruin your image.
- Dehaze - I start with this slider so I can get rid of most of the smoke haze before I flatten my image with the highlights and shadow sliders. I adjust this as much as I can before I see the smoke either go away or till the color shift seems like too much.
- Flatten - Flatten the image with the highlights and shadows. Simply make sure that you aren't introducing more grain or making your highlights go gray.
- Contrast - Add whites and black using the alt or option key to fine tune the contrast you are adding. Make sure you aren't blowing you information.
- Color Temperature/Saturation - This is the most important part. Make the image the temperature you want and then use this simple trick to get your colors back. Decrease the saturation to an unrealistic amount and then use the vibrance slider to bring it back to something better. By decreasing the global color and then increase the less saturated colors you even out the overall look of the image.
- HSL Sliders - I use the hue slider to get the colors back to where they should be. Also, if you are still having saturation problems this is where you can do even more to get it back.
- Local Adjustments - This final step will bring your image to life, draw the eye where it needs to go and open up the shadow areas locally to create a more dramatic dynamic of light. Also add more clarity and contrast in the areas that are still effected by smoke, this should make these parts blend in with the rest of the image better.
Finally, if you think this is a really sharp image that's really editable then I'd agree. This is one of the first portfolio shots from my Fuji x100s and it's honestly blowing me away. Having shot through my Canon battery from a timelapse I was initially bummed I had to shoot these images on the Fuji as it's not quite as good as the 7D MK II. However after seeing the sharpness of this RAW file I couldn't be happier. I ended up using this camera from a least half the images I published on here and am super pleases with how it pairs with my main camera.