Brighten a dark photo or remove haze
Lift a dark, underexposed photo or clear fog and haze.
Drop an image here, or .
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Low Light & Dehaze: how to use it
- Drop in a dark or hazy photo.
- Choose what to fix: a dark photo, haze and fog, or both.
- Set the Strength, add noise smoothing if grain appears in the shadows, and download.
Tips
- Around 50 to 70 strength usually looks natural; full strength can make night scenes look like dusk.
- Keep colours natural ticked for skin tones; untick it for a punchier landscape.
Low Light & Dehaze: what it does and when to use it
Low Light & Dehaze fixes two common problems with one method: photos that came out too dark, and photos washed out by haze, fog, smog or a dirty window. It uses the dark channel prior, a well-known image processing technique that estimates how much of each part of the picture is veiled, and removes that veil. It is not an AI model, so it gives the same result every time and needs no download.
For a dark photo, the picture is inverted first: a dark scene turned negative looks like a hazy one, so the same haze removal lifts the shadows and then the picture is turned back. Unlike plain brightness, it raises the dark areas a lot and the already-bright ones hardly at all, so a window or a sky does not blow out to white. Strength sets how far it goes.
Brightening reveals noise that was hidden in the shadows, which is what the noise smoothing slider is for; Keep colours natural stops dull colours turning garish. A photo that is almost black has little detail left to recover, and a clipped white sky cannot be brought back. For a light touch, Image Adjustments or Levels & Curves give manual control.
Low Light & Dehaze: frequently asked questions
How do I brighten a dark photo without making it washed out?
Choose "A dark, low-light photo" and a strength around 60. The tool lifts the dark areas much more than the bright ones, so the sky or a lamp does not blow out the way it does with a brightness slider. Related tool: Image Adjustments.
How do I remove haze or fog from a photo?
Choose "Haze, fog or smog". The tool estimates how much haze veils each part of the picture, including how much more is in the distance, and removes it, bringing back contrast and colour. More help: ImgVX AI help docs.
Why is my brightened photo grainy?
The grain was already there, hidden in the dark. Raise "Smooth the noise it reveals", which smooths the lifted shadows most. For heavy grain, run the Noise Reducer afterwards.
Is this an AI low-light enhancer?
No. It uses the dark channel prior, a classic image processing method, rather than an AI model, so it needs no download and gives the same result every time. For blur and noise together, try the AI Photo Enhancer.