Any glasses glare ninjas?

wellman

I recently took some senior photos of the son of a friend from church, and overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. Unfortunately, quite a few of the shots are marred by lots of glare in the subject's glasses.

The most valuable lesson I've learned from this experience is to NOT HAVE GLARE. :huh Next time I'll be paying more attention, and I've got a couple of techniques up my sleeve now (popping the lenses, tipping up a bit, etc). However, I need to deal with this batch of photos.

I've read up on a few "copy the eye and clone the skin" techniques. I'll give them a try, using PSE2. Given all this, I have a few questions...

1. Any other advice to offer on doing the glare reduction myself?
2. MPix.com will do glare removal for $8/head. I've used this in the past and have been pretty pleased. However, on lots of photos, that gets pricey. Any other services to recommend?

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for your comments.

arroyoshark

I have had some success fixing eyeglass glare using the patch tool. Doesn't work in every instance, tho.


Other than careful lighting placement, would a polarizer work for this at the image making end? Another option is to have person wear a glassless eyeglass frame. This has been suggested to me by an instructor.

Vivid Visions

I haven't used any other services, or even MPix for that matter, but I have had some luck with cloning the glare out. It does take time and patience, but if it is a problem on the same person, you may only need to do it once, and then use the fixed eye on the subsequent images.

Also, a tip that I have used pretty regularly is to ask the subject to remove the glasses for one shot, and then replace them for the second shot, making sure the lighting and subject position are kept as close to identical as possible.

BinaryFx

wellman wrote:

The most valuable lesson I've learned from this experience is to NOT HAVE GLARE.

Hi Greg, can you post a hi-res crop of both eyes/glasses and surrounding areas of skin that are unaffected by glare or other issues?

I have some ideas, which often fall short when the unseen image is kicked around...but you never know!

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

DavidTO

BinaryFx wrote:

Hi Greg, can you post a hi-res crop of both eyes/glasses and surrounding areas of skin that are unaffected by glare or other issues?

I have some ideas, which often fall short when the unseen image is kicked around...but you never know!

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

Binary, I clicked yer link. Nice site, great resource, and welcome aboard! You are going to be a great addition around here!

wellman

BinaryFx wrote:

Hi Greg, can you post a hi-res crop of both eyes/glasses and surrounding areas of skin that are unaffected by glare or other issues?

I have some ideas, which often fall short when the unseen image is kicked around...but you never know!

Sincerely,

Stephen Marsh.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

Stephen,

The first three images in this gallery are from the shoot. I figured giving you high-res originals would be the best thing. If this isn't what you're after, let me know. Thanks for the willingness to look!
-Greg

BinaryFx

David, thanks for the welcome!

wellman wrote:

Stephen,

The first three images in this gallery are from the shoot. I figured giving you high-res originals would be the best thing. If this isn't what you're after, let me know. Thanks for the willingness to look!
-Greg

Greg, I did not find a quick answer.

On retouching, I would try the clone tool in darken blend at low opacity on a new layer, to fill in skin in the blown areas. Another option is to uss the shadow/highlight commannd to fill in the blown areas in a duped layer, then mask and blend in the layer in darken blend mode at reduced opacity. Then one can select the good eye/glass frame and copy it to a new layer and transform it into the right shape/size over the damaged one, blending in luminosity mode perhaps at reduced opacity for a subtle effect (differece blend mode and or lower opaciity is helpful for aligning and transforming). You may use liquify on the eye to make it a little different to the other one if not happy with the distortion.

Basically I would try to reduce but not remove the glare, tone it down and add in some missing detail but accepting this as part of the character of the location/lighting (perhaps not seeking perfection). Of course, if you can justify more time then removing rather than reducing may be the goal (almost anything is possible with the right time/budget).


Regards,

Stephen Marsh
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx

wellman

Stephen,

Thanks a ton for the helpful advice. I'm quite the photoshop novice, but everyone's got to learn sometime, right?

-Greg

BinaryFx

wellman wrote:

Stephen,

Thanks a ton for the helpful advice. I'm quite the photoshop novice, but everyone's got to learn sometime, right?

-Greg

Indeed Greg! There is no time like the present..and there is nothing like a live job to learn on!

A crop of the original attached...(to be continued)

BinaryFx

And, here is an example 10 minute retouch - I went subtle, the layer opacity can be increased and futher work done if required (half that time was experimenting, further images would be quicker, 5 min or less).

Steps were:

1. Add a new blank retouching layer in darken blend mode.
2. Clone tool set to sample all layers, sample the cheek under the glasses to replace the blown areas in the glasses.
3. Drop opacity of this layer to your taste.
4. Add a smart noise layer - new blank layer over the others, set to overlay blend, add noise filter, layer mask, invert the mask to black, paint in the effect with white in the mask over the eye area.
5.Target the original image layer. Loose eliptical selection of the left eye, float the selection into a new layer, stack the layer above all others, transform the eye flipped horizontally, then distored smaller/rotated to suit the old right eye (all this done at reduced layer opacity in difference blend mode before going to normal blend mode and adjusting opacity to suit).

The cropped layered PSD file (563 kb) can be downloaded for 7 days from this temporary URL, it should help make the above steps clearer:

http://download.yousendit.com/149884584445DC3B


Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

BinaryFx

I am not sure what limitations you face using Elements Greg, so some adaption of the following explanations may be required. This is just to further explain the theory behind a couple of the steps in the correction:

Darken and lighten blending modes are great for retouching at reduced opacity. This was part of the secret before Adobe released the healing tools.

http://www.creativemac.com/2001/12_dec/tutorials/photoshopwrinkle.htm
http://www.creativemac.com/2001/12_dec/tutorials/photoshopwrinkle2.htm


More on simple blending modes in these PDF files:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/bryang/chops/


Information on adding smart noise can be found here (this is optional):

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

(Click the "How To" link, then scroll down to the "Grain & Noise" section).

Also see the categorised links page at my site for more tutorials and info, in addition to my original content in the Feature Articles, How To and Downloads sections.


Regards,

Stephen Marsh.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

wellman

Stephen,
Thanks for the help and the links!