Techniques to remove smoke or fog from a photo

GnuTux · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 7:58 pm **(#1)**

GIMP Version: 2.8.0
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: Fedora 17
GIMP Experience: Yes

A friend of mine gave me a scanned image of a photo and asked if there was any way to remove or lessen the smoke in the image. I haven't had much luck and was wondering if anyone could suggest any techniques that might help.

Sorry for such a large image but he wanted to print an 8x10 and frame it.

Thanks!!

molly · **Joined:** Apr 07, 2010 **Posts:** 14182

Wow, that one will be a challenge.

Odinbc · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:31 pm **(#3)**

A quick one to try.
Duplicate layer, use Curves to darken.
Set Layer mode to Soft Light.

ed.,
My Curves settings were similar to these ones.

Here's an example.

saulgoode · **Posted:** Wed Aug 08, 2012 11:48 pm **(#4)**

Try applying "Filters->Enhance->Unsharp Mask" with a large radius. For example, use the following settings and repeat two or three times...

Attachment:

SSusm.png [ 24.5 KiB | Viewed 7247 times ]

Note: if you are using GIMP 2.8 then you should be able to set the Radius higher than "120". If so, start with a very large radius and work your way smaller in subsequent runs (if needed).

molly · **Joined:** Apr 07, 2010 **Posts:** 14182

Wow that really works great Saul. A lot of the pixels in the clothes show up more though, but sure works for the smoke.
I selected just the man, including his shirt and ran the filter twice and then selected just the face then ran brightness and contrast

alc59 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:27 am **(#6)**

played around with different filters, curves, duplicated-blur-overlay,heal tool, gmic-anisotropic-smoothing

GnuTux · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:08 pm **(#7)**

Thanks for techniques Odinbc and Saul. That definitely helps.

You did a good job of getting rid of the smoke too alc59, but what is needed are the exact steps or techniques used to remove or lessen the smoke, so they can be duplicated by myself and others who see this thread.

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 14715 **Location:** USA

I ran the image through Wavelet Decompose with 5 layers with alpha.
Then i made all layers invisible except the 5th layer with the most detail.
I duplicated it 3 times and merged them all together.Then i made the residual layer visible and merged the copied layers and the residual layer together.

Then i ran the entire image through Old Photo just for fun.

Wavelet-Image (i put this through RIOT also to get the size down to 4700 kb) From 8700 kb.

Sepia toned -

Is all that speckling from the ashes of the fire?

PhotoComix · **Joined:** Apr 12, 2010 **Posts:** 5870

I tried with one of my swiss knifes for photo edit, Graphic boost
The change may look too dramatic but consider that you may fade the effect over the original.

It did not completely remove the smoke , that will ruin the photo, but remove most of the haze

It works also because use (partially) Saulgoode suggestion (unsharp mask with high radius )..partially because there is only w iteration but then result is enforced by the other steps

I could not use the image at original size on this computer, too heavy for my Ram gmic would crash (well it did )

, so i scaled down a bit , if used on on the original the result would be much smoother

here the preset
{gnutuzx-Graphic Boost 2}{Graphic Boost 2}{gimp_graphic_boost4}{gimp_graphic_boost4}{1.25}{2}{0}{0.15}{14}{0}{1}{0.5}{0.45}{2}{0}{1}{0}{1}{1}{1}{0.5}{0.45}{1}

and for a less dark effect you may wish try "Multiplay" instead the "Colorburn" in the mixer option or /and lower the opacity
(still in the mixer option of the filter)

PhotoComix · **Joined:** Apr 12, 2010 **Posts:** 5870

I mean a similar photo should show that was a hell of smoke, or would not be too interesting

so the point for me was to remove the haziness and recover detail and contrast but leaving the smoke and its effects , visible on the man at left still immersed in a cloud of smoke (and that justify his expression , he is against the wind with smoke in the eyes )

alc59 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:31 pm **(#11)**

I'm bad at writing things down so i tried it again
colors-levels-auto
colors-curves-90

i ran a shadow recovery filter on it
then had to scale it down by 50% because G'mic anisotropic smooth wouldn't run at full size for some reason

duplicated and gaussian blur (5) and set layer mode to overlay
used the heal tool on some of the bigger white spots

I'm sure someone will come up with a better way
what ever their cooking looks good :hehe

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