How to Fix Polarization in Photoshop?

The polarizing filter is used by photographers to eliminate glare, increase color saturation and enhance vibrancy. However, the polarizing filter is very sensitive to the orientation of the sun, and rotating the filer to an incorrect angle could cause polarization in the image. Polarization refers to an extreme, unrealistic distribution of colors across a bright object--often the sky. Adobe's graphic design and photo editing program, Photoshop, includes tools photographers can use to fix polarization.

Step 1

Open the photo you want to correct in Photoshop by clicking on the "File" menu and choosing "Open." Find the image file in the file window, click on it to highlight it and then press the "Open" button.

Step 2

Choose the Magic Wand tool and set the "Tolerance" to 40. This will tell the tool to select a region of your image with similar color. Click on an area in the sky or polarized area to highlight it. If the tool does not automatically select the entire area, hold Shift while clicking in another area to add it to your selection. Continue doing this until the entire area of polarization is selected.

Step 3

Use the Lasso tool to remove unwanted slivers from your selection. Hold down "Alt" ("Option" on Mac OS X) and trace a selection around the part of the selection you want to remove.

Step 4

Click on the "Select" menu and choose "Modify" and then "Feather." Set the feather radius to approximately 3.0 to soften your selection.

Step 5

Click on the Eyedropper tool and click on an area of the polarization with the most realistic color. In a polarized sky, this area will probably be the lightest area in the sky. This will set your primary color to one that matches the polarized area.

Step 6

Click and hold your mouse button down over the Paint Bucket tool to activate a pop up menu. Select the Gradient tool.

Step 7

Click and hold your mouse button down in the corner of the polarized area. Drag your cursor across the polarization to approximately 3/4 of the way across the image. Release the mouse button to fill your selected, polarized area with a neutral color.