RESOLVE FX · ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION · STUDIO
Dehaze.
Correct the veil.
Do not flatten the atmosphere.
Dehaze is a depth-weighted color + contrast operation for smog, airlight, and atmospheric haze. The durable mental model has four jobs: describe the haze color, inspect the simulated depth matte, set signed Strength, then integrate with Blend.
Haze Color
Display · Shadow · Highlight
Strength ±
In the lab, enable Display Depth and move Shadow/Highlight before changing Strength. Then disable the matte view and compare near vs far correction: the whole point of Dehaze is spatial weighting, not a generic contrast boost.
Teaching model only. It visualizes depth weighting, signed Strength, Haze Color direction, Shadow/Highlight reshaping, and final Blend. It does not reproduce Resolve’s proprietary Dehaze OFX algorithm, actual depth estimation, or pixel output.
Actual Resolve captures + independent atmospheric teaching model
6 CONTROLS · 4 CAPTURES · STUDIO01AIRLIGHT × DEPTH × SIGNAL ORDER
Dehaze is easiest to control when atmosphere, depth estimate, and pipeline ownership stay separate.
The FX can look like “smart contrast,” but Blackmagic’s description is more specific: a selective color + contrast operation distributed by a simulated depth matte.
Dehaze models atmospheric veiling; it is not just a Contrast boost.
Blackmagic describes the FX as a selective color + contrast correction for smog, airlight, and haze. Positive Strength raises contrast especially in the shadows, rebalances away from the selected Haze Color toward its complement, and selectively restores saturation. Negative Strength reverses that direction and can act as controlled haze addition.
The simulated depth matte is an estimate, not true camera Z-depth.
Resolve automatically tries to apply more correction to distant areas and less to nearby ones. Sky, water, glass, fog, backlight, and low-detail surfaces can confuse that estimate, which is why Display Depth is a diagnostic view and Shadow/Highlight exist to reshape the extremes of the map.
Establish a sane input signal first, then Dehaze, then the creative grade.
Dehaze can amplify existing noise, macroblocking, chroma errors, and clipped shadows. Decode/input transform, necessary NR, and basic technical normalization should make the signal predictable before atmospheric correction. Creative contrast, look, and saturation are easier to judge after haze has been reduced in a controlled way.
Resolve 21.1 manual boundary: positive Strength increases contrast especially in shadows, moves color toward the complement of Haze Color and selectively restores saturation; lowering Strength reverses those tendencies. Display Depth is a diagnostic view of a simulated depth matte, not measured camera depth.
02REAL RESOLVE 21 CONTROLS
Six visible controls, grouped by atmospheric model, depth model, and final mix.
The four screenshots are actual Resolve captures from the project archive. No missing UI state is fabricated.
AA · Atmospheric model
Describe the atmospheric veil and how strongly it should be corrected.
- Dehaze Strength
A coupled color + contrast control. Positive values reduce haze by increasing separation and selective saturation; negative values move the image toward the selected Haze Color and lower contrast.
VERIFYDo not approve Strength on a single frame. Check shadow noise, skin, sky gradients, and compression in motion.
- Haze Color
The color of smog/airlight/haze the FX should minimize. Sample a genuinely atmospheric distant area without a bright object, specular highlight, or saturated local color.
VERIFYA bad sample changes the direction of the entire color compensation and can create cyan, magenta, or warm casts even at reasonable Strength.
BB · Simulated depth
Verify where the automatic depth weighting is actually sending the correction.
- Display Depth
Diagnostic view of the simulated depth matte. It is not a creative output or AI Depth Map; use it to inspect how Dehaze estimates near and far regions before adjusting Shadow/Highlight.
VERIFYAlways turn Display Depth off before judging the final image and before render/QC.
- Shadow
Raises or lowers the darkest parts of the simulated depth map — the regions Dehaze estimates as farthest away.
VERIFYThis is not an ordinary tonal Shadow control. Judge it through Display Depth and by how correction is distributed spatially across the frame.
- Highlight
Raises or lowers the lightest parts of the simulated depth map — regions the algorithm estimates as closest.
VERIFYIf a face or foreground product receives unexpectedly strong Dehaze, inspect the near side of the depth matte before trying to hide the problem with Blend.
CC · Final mix
Blend finishes a correct model; it does not repair a wrong one.
- Blend
Global Blend mixes the complete FX result with the node's original state. The real capture shows 1.000 for the full effect; 0 should return the node to its original state.
VERIFYFix Haze Color, the depth matte, and Strength first. Use Blend last for integration, not to conceal a structural mistake.
03ORDER OF DECISIONS
Diagnose haze first. Sample airlight. Inspect depth. Set Strength. Blend last.
If the simulated depth estimate cannot protect an important subject, switch from automatic ownership to an explicit Window/Qualifier rather than forcing the same global settings harder.
Sample Haze Color
Sample the atmospheric veil itself. Avoid local objects, bright clouds, or specular highlights that would steer the color correction in the wrong direction.
The graph is decision order, not mandatory node count. Durable ownership is: sane source → true atmospheric diagnosis → Haze Color → depth model → signed Strength → final validation.
04BUILD IT IN RESOLVE
Four exercises cover landscapes, urban smog, foreground protection, and intentional negative Strength.
These are teaching workflows, not presets. Approve the effect on real footage, in motion, on scopes, and in the intended color-management chain.
Mountain landscape: restore separation in distant planes
Reduce atmospheric veiling in mountain layers while preserving believable perspective and distant softness.
PrepareTechnically normalized clip, Dehaze on a dedicated serial node, scopes, and a 100% Viewer.
- 01
Sample Haze Color from clean atmospheric veil between distant ridges, not from a cloud or snow.
- 02
Enable Display Depth and confirm that distant ridges read darker while the foreground is treated as closer.
- 03
Use Shadow/Highlight only enough to make the weighting agree with the scene's spatial structure.
- 04
Raise Dehaze Strength until separation returns, then back off before crunchy texture or colored edge artifacts appear.
Distant planes read more clearly without looking cut out or losing atmospheric perspective.
Urban smog: reduce the veil without dirty shadows
Recover facades and skyline without amplifying macroblocking or noise in dark streets.
PrepareApply only the needed temporal/spatial NR on an upstream node, then Dehaze.
- 01
Confirm the problem is actual smog/airlight rather than a lifted black level caused by a wrong transform.
- 02
Sample Haze Color from distant neutral veil and watch RGB Parade for an emerging channel cast.
- 03
Inspect Display Depth over sky and glass facades; those are common failure zones for the estimate.
- 04
If noise appears before useful separation, reduce Strength or localize the FX rather than rescuing an over-strong setup with low Blend.
The skyline and facade materials are clearer, shadow noise remains controlled, and neutrals do not drift into a color cast.
Localized Dehaze: protect a face or product
Use Dehaze on background atmosphere without altering a critical foreground subject.
PrepareA dedicated node with a tracked Window/Qualifier restricting Dehaze to the background zone.
- 01
First try correcting the simulated depth matte with Display Depth + Shadow/Highlight.
- 02
If the estimate still hits the face/product, add explicit spatial isolation before choosing an extreme Strength.
- 03
Track the matte through the full clip and inspect boundaries around motion, hair, and defocus.
- 04
Use Blend only after localization and depth weighting are stable.
The background loses atmospheric veil while skin/product retains its intended contrast, hue, and texture.
Negative Strength: add controlled airlight
Use the reverse direction of the FX as a technically explicit way to add a soft atmospheric veil.
PrepareNeutral clip, dedicated node, moderate negative Strength, and a deliberate Haze Color.
- 01
Choose Haze Color as the intended airlight color, not as a subject color.
- 02
Use Display Depth so added haze belongs more to distant regions than to the foreground.
- 03
Move Strength negative in small steps and make sure the black floor does not turn into a uniform gray veil across the frame.
- 04
Compare against a normal low-contrast grade; depth weighting should be the reason to choose Dehaze.
The added atmosphere feels spatial rather than like a globally lifted black level.
05CHOOSE BY RESPONSIBILITY
Not every flat image needs Dehaze, and not every depth problem needs the Dehaze depth estimate.
| Tool | What it owns | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Dehaze | Depth-weighted color + contrast correction for atmospheric veiling. | When the problem is genuinely smog, airlight, or haze and automatic depth weighting is useful. |
| Primaries / Contrast | Global or manually localized tonal correction without a simulated depth model. | When the shot is simply flat and the cause is not atmospheric. |
| Color Stabilizer | Temporal stabilization of brightness/white balance from an analyzed reference region. | When illumination/balance changes over time rather than depth-dependent haze within the frame. |
| Depth Map | A separate depth isolation/matte tool for compositing and selective grades; a different job and output. | When you need an explicit depth matte and manual downstream processing rather than Dehaze's built-in estimate. |
06SYMPTOM → CAUSE → FIX
Most Dehaze failures are either a wrong atmospheric sample, a wrong depth estimate, or too much correction.
01Shadows became noisy and crunchy after Dehaze.+
Positive Strength exposed noise/compression that haze had previously hidden by increasing local separation and saturation. Reduce Strength, inspect the source signal, and use upstream NR when genuinely needed; do not solve everything with Blend.
02Sky, water, or glass receives strange depth-dependent correction.+
The automatic simulated depth matte misread a low-detail/reflective region. Enable Display Depth, reshape Shadow/Highlight, and if the spatial estimate is fundamentally wrong, localize the FX with a Window/Qualifier.
03Neutrals drift toward cyan, magenta, or excessive warmth.+
Haze Color was likely sampled from a local object/highlight or Strength is too high. Re-sample actual airlight and verify RGB Parade before adding downstream compensation.
04A foreground face looks as overprocessed as the distant background.+
Inspect the Highlight side of the simulated depth map: the near subject may be misclassified. Fix the depth controls first, then add explicit spatial protection if needed.
05Display Depth was accidentally left enabled at final output.+
Treat Display Depth as a diagnostic view, not a deliverable output. Keep a dedicated pre-render/QC checklist item confirming the depth display is disabled.
06Dehaze barely helps while ordinary Contrast works immediately.+
The original problem may not be atmospheric: log/incorrect transform, lifted blacks, lens flare, or underexposure. Fix the cause with the appropriate tool rather than forcing Dehaze.
100% Viewer
Look for halos, noise, banding, and crunchy microcontrast, especially in distant shadows and sky gradients.
Scopes
Waveform reveals shadow compression/clipping, RGB Parade shows channel casts after Haze Color, and Vectorscope exposes excessive selective saturation.
Motion check
Play the full shot: automatic depth estimation can change character around moving subjects, highlights, and changing atmospheric conditions.
07BEFORE YOU DELIVER
Approve the atmosphere and spatial weighting, not just a more dramatic still frame.
The checklist is a workflow reminder. It does not replace real-media review, calibrated monitoring, scopes, or delivery QC.
08FAQ
The distinctions that keep Dehaze from becoming destructive “smart contrast.”
Is Dehaze just Contrast?
No. The manual describes Dehaze Strength as a simultaneous color + contrast adjustment driven by Haze Color and a simulated depth matte. Ordinary Contrast has no such built-in atmospheric model.
What exactly does Display Depth show?
The simulated depth matte automatically generated by the FX to distribute correction by estimated scene depth. It is an estimate, not camera Z-depth or an independent AI Depth Map output.
Why is Shadow in Dehaze different from a normal Shadows control?
Because it modifies the dark regions of the simulated depth map that Dehaze interprets as farthest away. It is a depth-map control, not a direct tonal lift/gamma operation.
Can Dehaze Strength be used negatively?
Yes. Blackmagic describes lower Strength as reducing contrast, moving color toward the selected Haze Color, and selectively lowering saturation. In practice, it can be used as controlled haze addition when depth weighting is the reason to choose the FX.
Should Haze Color always be white or gray?
No. Haze Color should describe the actual smog/airlight in the shot. Warm dust, urban smog, and blue atmospheric scattering can require different samples.
When should Dehaze be restricted with a Window or Qualifier?
When the simulated depth matte fundamentally misclassifies an important region — such as a face, product, sky, or reflection — and Shadow/Highlight cannot produce stable spatial weighting.
Where should Dehaze sit in the node tree?
After correct decode/input transform and necessary technical cleanup, but before creative operations you want to judge on the dehazed scene. Exact placement depends on the pipeline and the job.
Is Dehaze available in the free version of Resolve?
On desktop, Blackmagic lists Dehaze as a Studio feature. Check Blackmagic's current feature matrix for the exact platform/version you use.
Sources and verification boundaries
Visible names/defaults were checked against the four actual Resolve captures in the site archive. Behavior was cross-checked against the current Resolve 21.1 manual description and Blackmagic’s Studio feature matrix. The interactive atmospheric profile is deliberately an independent teaching model; it does not reproduce Resolve OFX code, its depth estimator, or pixel output.
This web pass does not claim live Resolve-render certification. Final production acceptance still belongs to the installed Resolve build, real footage, scopes, and your monitoring/delivery environment.