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Have reflections ruined this picture?

Shacklebolt

Shacklebolt

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 2, 2004
596
0
From a wedding in Vegas at Aureole. The couple wanted to have their picture taken in front of the "vertical wine celler" (people literally have to rappel up to get your wine).

The sheer volume of glass in the shot makes eliminating reflections extremely difficult. Is it necessary though? If so, how best to fix it (relatively inexperienced at PS)? The couple was pleased with it... but that's not enough for me. (Btw, it was for a friend, so I don't stand to have any financial gain off this).

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I had a similar issue with this kind of photo op. I had been told that getting a polarizing filter would help with shots like this. I've spent way too much money recently on other camera gear however none for a polarizing filter :confused: Might wanna see if getting one of those helps you out in the future.

Also, were the reflections of the blue lights not there, I think it would've been a much better pic.
 
I know this is one of those "everyone can be a general after the battle" kind of replies, but still ... You should have used a CPL to minimize reflections, that's what they're there for after all.
 
So, is there anything to be done in post processing? Or has that ship sailed?
 
Most likely any PP you try to do to "save" it will only make it look worse. But since it's digital you may as well have a go?

I'd focus more on the blue reflection covering the people rather than the brighter one up above. You might be able to reduce it's prominence by desaturating the blue channel (since it looks like the blue reflections are the only blue elements in the photo) or something along those lines.

Ruahrc
 
You could crop out from the womans hand down to the floor. Run the heal brush over the dress and man legs.
 
It would take a lot of time and patience, but you could PS the blue out with clever use of the cloning tool. But, it may show depending on how big of a print your want. The other suggestion would be to USE it as part of a style with some more added reflections, lens flares etc. to give it a very "Vegas" look. It would depend on the clients taste, but it does look kinda cool so why not just go with it and take it a few steps further?
 
VirtualRain said:
Is it just me, or is there another woman's face above the bride? :confused: That's more distracting to my eyes but perhaps easier to clone out.
Click to expand...

Ha, yeah, that's one of the rappellers, on her way up to get someone a bottle. Guess she wanted to be in the shot.
 
Shacklebolt said:
So, is there anything to be done in post processing? Or has that ship sailed?
Click to expand...

depends on how much time you want to spend working on it with photoshop and how high a resolution your final image is going to be.

the blue reflections on the glass of the railing in front of the couple should be easy enough to get rid of......the big horizontal reflection in front of the wine tower higher up, that's going to take a lot lot lot more time and patience, and some photoshop surgery so probably more of a task for a photoshop enthusiast instead of a photographer looking to do some post processing, but you have a fair bit of material to work with from the next level of the wine tower above the reflection.......probably require a lot of alcohol too :D
 
Yeah, just need a low rez shot at the end of the day -- definitely not to print, so that's a bright side.

Assuming I had way more skill than I currently have with photoshop, how long would this take?
 
Your problem shouldn't be too difficult to fix in Photoshop using some careful cloning. There is a lot of repetition and areas that are not damaged that can easily be cloned over the damaged areas. Let me know if you need more guidance.
 
I would just leave it the way it is and move on. At least the reflections communicate something about the setting. The faces of the people are not covered by any reflections, so you can still identify them and understand something about the glass-clad environment where they wanted to pose. Editing out those reflections is likely to result in areas that look retouched, which would be even more distracting.
 
I understand how you feel about wanting to fix it. I've seen and fixed worse problems than this. Since the couple is happy with the image, you could take a shot at fixing it up without any pressure. I'm sure you'll improve your Photoshop techniques, and working on it will get it out of your system whether it looks better or not... because you know that if you don't try to fix it, you'll go mad. :p

My guesstimate for repair time is 3:12:33, assuming "way more skill" than you currently have, hahaha.
 
1.jpg


Here's my stab at it, its not as bad as it looks, depends how much time you want to spend on it, as others have said to completely clone out the reflections is a heck of a job, but you can lessen the impact of the reflection...its just wether you like that look.

Some quick fixes could include:

The guys jacket is black, so a curve on this pulled down sorts that out (if your prepared to crush your blacks a little)

The Brides dress comes up ok with some quick cloning (i even used content aware fill).

As she's in white and he in black you can simply desaturate the reflection, (as i have done to the right of the bride) which while it doesn't get rid of it reduces its effect a bit.

I Burned the main large reflection at the top to tone it down a bit, other than this I think that might require a bit more effort. (on reflection...(sorry about the pun!)I'd maybe leave this as it is...I think it looks worse toned down..but I guess thats a personal preference thing)

As ever more time will give better results I only spent 2/3 mins doing the above.

oh hope you don't mind me showing you what i meant on your pic, if you want me to take it down just send me a PM

Thanks
 
Might be crazy, but what about enhancing the reflections? Maybe adding some others very carefully in. The photo is taken in a glass wine cellar in vegas after all.
 
Here you go...

I cut out the upper floor, and transformed/pasted over the reflection.

Lower blue lights were selectively hue/saturation adjusted to desaturate and darken.

I only spent a couple of minutes. With the original res file and more work it might actually look realistic!
 

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firestarter said:
Here you go...

I cut out the upper floor, and transformed/pasted over the reflection.

Lower blue lights were selectively hue/saturation adjusted to desaturate and darken.

I only spent a couple of minutes. With the original res file and more work it might actually look realistic!
Click to expand...

Good job didn't think to do that...but works quite well
 
Well, if anyone wants to fidget with the original-size file, here it is.

I spent some time on pixlr last night trying to get a handle on the cloning tool (after watching some YouTube vids about how to use it), but I just can't get it to make anything look decent -- plus pixlr seems to work at a ridiculously slow framerate on my MBP. I'm curious as to the difference working on full-res shots makes, because some of the work on here looks pretty good, as far as I can tell.
 
re: reflections

Here is my go at it. I had a hard time retouching her hand. Perhaps a higher res file would have been better. I just noticed when I was posting this, that you had a link to a full size file.:eek:
I tried to take out the upper reflection, but it just didn't look right.
 

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Yes a cheap CPL would have lessoned or removed the glare when you took the shot. What could look good is some tech-looking rain to go with your rain cloud and puddle. Converting to B&W would remove the extremely noticeable color differences your glare cloud and glare puddle have created. You can also intentionally blur, crop, and/or desaturate the problem areas because in the end it is not the background - it is the faces that are centered in on when this photo is viewed. I doubt that when looking at the photo I'd be thinking that I really wish I could see to roof if the final photo had that cropped out.

I didn't notice the third wheel because I was viewing a 'fixed' version. That third person needs to be out of the shot. Cloning or desaturating would work. For the type of photograph it seems like you are saying he has a mistress on the side.
 
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The lighting is from below which makes the people look bad. You have also different light sources that ruin the color. The reflection is a minor problem which can be fixed.
 
firestarter said:
Here you go...

I cut out the upper floor, and transformed/pasted over the reflection.

Lower blue lights were selectively hue/saturation adjusted to desaturate and darken.

I only spent a couple of minutes. With the original res file and more work it might actually look realistic!
Click to expand...

That was one of the ways I thought to fix this...for future a CPL (as stated before) is the way to go.
 
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