I am working on a project where I have to insert people into a restaurant scene behind glass (I cannot get access to the interior). I want it to look very natural, and find it hard to get the "through glass" look. Anyone had experience with this before? Sample image of location attached

Hi makespictures.

I take it that you are trying to do something like this?

The trick to get someone behind glass, is to put something in front of the subject. What you want is the part of the image that would be part of the reflection, but not what would be behind the subject. To do this, find where you want to place the subject in the photo, and then copy that section of the original photo to a new layer. Modify the new section to remove the back ground but leave the reflection. This doesn't have to be perfect, but do pay attention to what should continue from the reflection, and what should be cut off by the new image. Place the new layer in front of the new subject (or in a top layer in the layer list), and reduce the opacity of the layer to about 50%.

Have you tried using the "blend if" function in layer styles? Perhaps copy the glass and paste it over the people, then use blend if so the people come back a bit, dodge and burn the glass layer to make highlights and shadows even on people with the glass?

Hi Kerry,

Blend if, is great for blending things in with something with a specific color. It works really great for instance to blend planes in with clouds to make it appear that they are flying in and out of the clouds, or to give something like flames a black border to make them stand out. You can even smooth the transition by separating the bullets with the alt key. The problem though, is in the blend, the blended portion of the image in sent behind the foreground. To put someone behind glass, what you need is to put a reflection in front of the subject, and reduce there visibility some, but not completely. You also need to completely hide what obviously belongs behind them. Good suggestion, but I believe the method I outlined above is a better solution for this problem.

I take it that you are trying to do something like this?
Nice job, Dave!

<C>

Dave,
I agree with lurch, nice job.
Ray

Thanks Lurch, and Des151. I've run across a need for this type of thing on several occasions. Takes a little practice, but it's not really that hard.

Excellent job Dave. I like your sense of proportion. The girl fits perfectly.
I would only add to your method, just a bit of burning to the subject & a slight of dodging to the reflection. The background is a little on the dark side.
Please forgive me for using your composition.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions..it's kind of a fun problem to solve. Dave I agree with your theory. I have incorporated that into my solution, as well as some other concepts:
1. I went back to the location and photographed the view opposite the window, and then layed over the image, experimenting with blend modes and opacity
2. I drew coloured rectangles on layers, applied gaussian blur and played with opacity and screen blend mode. This gave me quite realistic 'reflection' effects and helped me blend the composite together.
3. I also played with different ways of degrading the image of the people to sell the illusion of "behind glass" a bit - slight gaussian blur, flattening out the curve, reducing saturation.
My images are for an editorial story, so once they have been published I will post an example here. Thanks again.

Hi Chillin,

Thanks for your kind comments.

Yep, the background is a little dark, but I did this really quick and was working with what was provided. Forgive me though, but I having trouble to see where you made any changes. ???

Just darkened the girl a little using burn tool, that way she doesn’t look like a ghost. Also the reflections, I have accentuated them a bit with the dodge tool. Your composition didn't need much improvements if any. That's only my take on it.

Ok! Now I see it.

Cool!:bigthmb:

For the benefit of those that made suggestions, and those that are interested, here is a low res of one of the final composites.