Reducing window glare/haze (Real Estate Photography)

[Socketvox]

Hi guys,

I've started doing a little real estate photography.

I have a 5dII and hired a 16-35mm for the first shoot. The shots came up pretty well overall, but I'm having a problem in some with hazy windows.
I've tried a few 5 exposure HDR's so originally thought my HDR editing was the problem, but when I look at the individual shots, the haze is evident in each one of these from the very start (even the underexposed shots).

Here's the one of the exposures I did a quick edit on. I junked this one because the composition wasn't great but check out the haze in top left window, over the chandelier. Looks a bit in the top right too.

Click to view full size!

So - will a polarizing filter fix this next time? Was the lens I hired faulty? Is it possible to fix this in post? What am I actually looking at here?

Cheers

[lovecolt]

Yes, you will need a circular polarizer filter (the thin expensive one to prevent viagnet on a uwa Len on FF like your mk2)

[jjphoto]

Originally Posted by Socketvox

...check out the haze in top left window, over the chandelier. Looks a bit in the top right too.
pix

...

What do YOU mean when you say 'haze'? I've looked at your image and can't figure out what you are referring to.

[zach]

Originally Posted by jjphoto

What do YOU mean when you say 'haze'? I've looked at your image and can't figure out what you are referring to.

Look on the chandelier.

[jjphoto]

Originally Posted by zach

Look on the chandelier.

Ok. That's lens flare but I can't see where it's coming from. I wouldn't expect a PL to help that.

[MatterHorn]

Originally Posted by lovecolt

Yes, you will need a circular polarizer filter (the thin expensive one to prevent viagnet on a uwa Len on FF like your mk2)

lol it took me a few tries to work out what you were saying there .... you mean vignette

[Arch-Angel]

It's lens flare, and a CP filter won't fix it.

I would imagine that removing flare IS possible in post, but definitely wouldn't be worth it as a long term solution.

To be honest, I think in this shot it should have been something that needed to be accounted for in camera; you mentioned it was on each of your 5 bracketed shots. You might have found that even a subtle adjustment of your shooting angle would have fixed this issue... ie, moving camera a foot to the left or right.

All that said, it's hardly noticeable. If it really bugs you try blasting that one little area with +contrast and maybe +blacks. Won't be perfect, but should help a little.

[Socketvox]

To be honest, I noticed it but didn't worry about it too much.

Then the client commented some of the shots "seemed hazy" so I figured this is what they were talking about.

Here's the HDR

Click to view full size!

I didn't notice it on the LCD. Maybe I need to be more careful and for every shot I take, take another from a slightly different angle just in case..

[cuzbruz]

It looks like something may have smeared on the lens? I dont think a CPL will help.

On another note, you should fix your verticals on the left hand side. Yeah you will lose some of the image but you will have straight verticals and the wall wont look like its leaning.

[Socketvox]

Originally Posted by cuzbruz

It looks like something may have smeared on the lens? I dont think a CPL will help.

On another note, you should fix your verticals on the left hand side. Yeah you will lose some of the image but you will have straight verticals and the wall wont look like its leaning.

I wondered if it could have been a smudge. Rental lens - so entirely possible. I'll check it's clean next time.

Yeah I struggled with the verticals big time with the 16-35. Did some massive adjusting in Lightroom and lost a lot of image in some of them. This one didn't make it past the first round cause the composition wasn't real great, so I never fixed the distortion.

This shoot made me think I should look into a tilt shift if I end up getting more of this work though

[Gaidin]

Tilt-shift will definitely fix your verticals! Not sure how wide the Canon tilts go though, because you're limited to 24mm in Nikon land which borders on not quite cutting it for real estate

The "haze" might just be a lack of sharpness resulting from the HDR processing....what did you use for that?

[Deftone2k]

Originally Posted by Gaidin

Tilt-shift will definitely fix your verticals! Not sure how wide the Canon tilts go though, because you're limited to 24mm in Nikon land which borders on not quite cutting it for real estate

The "haze" might just be a lack of sharpness resulting from the HDR processing....what did you use for that?

17mm thankfully..

Hope Nikon announce a 17mm soon!

[Naedw4981]

Check for a smude/fingerprint on the rear element of the lens.

A few of my lenses will show exactly the same sort of "flare" if they have a smude on the rear element.

[hlokk]

Originally Posted by Gaidin

Tilt-shift will definitely fix your verticals! Not sure how wide the Canon tilts go though, because you're limited to 24mm in Nikon land which borders on not quite cutting it for real estate

17mm

Since CS5, there are some good straightening tools for this kind of stuff. Apart from a loss in imaging area, the main problem with doing it in photoshop is that you get less resolution in your final output. For the loss in imaging area, if you get it about right to start with, then you dont loose a lot, and for the resolution, you'll be shooting with a 16MP+ camera, and for the web/high res brochures, you probably dont need a lot more than 4-5MP of resolution (which should still give you a detailed A4 print). Unlike film days, if you dont need supermax resolution, a lot of perspective control tilt shift can be done on the computer (its obviously not as good, but if you're producing medium resolution pictures, it may not be noticeably worse than a proper tilt shift for many thousands of dollars, depending on your situation). Obviously theres a few things tilt shifts can do that a computer cant, and they may make life easier if you know how to use one (plus you get full detailed hires )

Also, if you use an ultra wide of say exterior shots, remember you can point the camera at the horizon and crop the bottom part off the image. You obviously loose a fair bit of FOV, so wouldnt work as well indoors though.

The "haze" might just be a lack of sharpness resulting from the HDR processing....what did you use for that?

It looks like a loss of contrast, not lack of sharpness to me. Perhaps a hood may have helped? The problem with wide angle is that often the sun will be in your pics though, so a lens with good flare control would be required (but I think the Canon UWA zooms are good for that). I suspect to stop it, you'd really have to notice it during the shot, and then adjust. Tethering to a laptop with a good screen could help notice that.