One of the things thats a bit of a problem when I’m in Taiwan, and I see it in a lot of other people’s flickr photos is the air.
So often there’s a white haze in the air that makes all the pictures lifeless. We went to Taipei 101 today, during the day, because when we got going it looked like it would be clear, but by the time we got to the top, it wasn’t and I really didn’t get very many good pictures because of the haze. (Which, because it was through tinted windows was not just white, but blue.)
One of the tricks I’ve found that frequently helps – sometimes amazingly well, other times not so much – is to make a quick levels adjustment in Photoshop. In Martin Evening’s book, Adobe Photoshop CS for Photographers, he shows how to increase the dynamic range of digital photos to tightening the ends of the levels. I’ve found that in many cases, it also clears up the haze in my Taiwan photos.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work so well for today’s pictures, many of which were basically all blue/white.
The picture here is a before and after playing with the levels and curves. If anybody’s got any tips on how to try to punch up photos like this, please let me know. I’m really awful at Photoshopping things.