Halo Removal in Photoshop

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Correcting Halo's in Photoshop

Halo's can be caused naturally in a scene with sharp contrast and especially if there is some bright light. Or we can cause them by layer masking along edges or simply from sharpening our photos.

Halos tight.jpg


So how to correct the Halo's? I know I struggled with all sorts of different methods, none of them really worked all that well, and some of them required me to have eagle eyes to be able to clone along edges.

This method is one I came across 6 or 7 years ago, and it works super well, and is really pretty easy.

The First thing to do is to Create a Duplicate Layer. Go to the Layer Menu, and Click on Duplicate Layer.

Halos.jpg


Second, and this is where the magic comes into play. With the top layer selected, Change the Blending mode to Darken. Or in some cases, you can choose Color Darken. I prefer just plain Darken most of the time, but the more you use this, you can decide which of the two blending modes works best for a particular photo.
Halo Change Blending Mode Crop.jpg



Third, with the top layer still selected, go click on the Cloning Tool. As to the size and settings of the Cloning tool, that will depend on your halo.

If it's a sharp defined halo along edges, as is typical from the sharpening, then you will want a smaller sized Clone Tool, anywhere from 10 to 30 pixels. I generally go with around 20. You want the Hardness about 40 and the Flow about 70. This will allow the edges of the cloning to be softer and blend in better.

Halo Clone Tool settings Crop.jpg


If it's larger feathered type halo, as can be typical from doing layer masking where the feathering went too far and the sky along the horizon is lighter then the rest of the sky, then you will want a larger sized Clone Tool. It depends on just how wide that halo is. But it can easily be 70 or 80 pixels if needed. Keep the Hardness and Flow settings the same.

Now to actually remove the Halo, you will want to:

1st Press the Alt key while sampling with the Cloning Tool (Click the left mouse button while holding the Alt key down) far enough above the halo to select the darker area you want to fill the halo in with. I usually click pretty close to the halo, so that the blend ends up looking seamless.

2nd Now left click on your mouse and draw with the clone tool over the halo. You will see it disappear!

Halo removed.jpg


You will find where there are peaks or trees or other tall objects poking up above the horizon you will have to resample where you are cloning from. It will take a couple of moments of trial and error but you should easily pick it up.

 
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