Problem Removing Canon 550 Flash From Eye Glasses

[gho64]

Hi,

I have approximately 150 files (see Item # 1) with severe on-camera flash glare on one or both eye glass lens. I have tried every Photoshop method that I know and cannot remove the glare so that the resulting image is acceptable.

I do not care how long each image takes as long as the glare removal does not look artificial. Any suggestion how to remove the glare so it Look Normal like Item # 2. Or please refer me to a tutorial that will remove the glare.

Thank You In Advance for your suggestions and help removing the eye glass glare.

Hersul

[Cameraken]

Hi Hersul.

I copied His left (Our Right) pupil and pasted on his right
Copied His left (Our Right) eyebrow and pasted on his right (Needs Flip and Rotate)
Copied His Right (Our Left) tear duct to glasses and pasted on his right (Needs Flip and Rotate)
That did the main bits. The rest was painted onto a blank layer. Added some noise and added blank layer set to colour.(Did the teeth as well)

Ken

[gho64]

Thank You Ken,

I have been trying to accomplish that exact effect for several weeks. Now I must admit, I do not have the talent and or experuience that you have exibited in such a very short time. Thanks again. Have a great evening.

Hersul

[Kraellin]

i'll probably look at this tomorrow and think it looks like crap, but oh well. i only did the one eye. mostly clone and push and airbrushing on a blank layer. then i simply made a new eye with the red eye removal tool.

craig

[gho64]

Good Morning Craig,

Thank You, That is the near perfect

Now my problem is how did you do this so I can personally apply it to the other images.

Is there a tutorial available that explains your procedure in detail ??

You guys and girls on RetouchPRO are the very best at rescuing other members in trouble. I Thank You All for helping me and all the others members in need of your Photoshop expertise.

Best Regards,
Hersul

[Syd]

I did the same as Ken and Craig. Used the clone tool to clone good bits onto a new layer. You need to open a new layer, select the clone tool and then check the box "use all layers". Once cloned you can then rotate, flip or move (by one pixel increments if you like) and position the cloned part very precisely. Temporarily turn down the layer opacity for exact placement. Set the layer mode to dark so that you only affect the light pixels and thus retain more of the original picture.

Sincerely Syd

[Kraellin]

gho64,

you're welcome.

and thank you

the technique is a combination of clone on a light opacity setting, the push tool in psp 10 (sort of a smudge tool) and airbrushing. i cant give you an exact workflow, since i tend to go from one tool to another and back again. but the basic idea is to use what is good in the picture to fix what is bad. there was enough information within the one frame of the glasses to use to get the colors and edges and textures of the area around the eye to rebuild the parts that werent so good.

now, you'll notice i said i use the 'push' brush/tool. this is a smudge type brush that holds the paint you start with as long as you continue to keep the mouse button held down. so, you can drag the paint around as much as you like and it doesnt fade as you go. this is very useful in an image like this. for instance you can start on the glasses rim where it's nice and defined and has good color and just drag that good color to where the rim isnt so good..

also, when i'm zoomed in and working on something like this image where i need to do very fine work, i dont use the clone much. instead i use the push. i sort of do a feathering kind of smudge or clone, but with the push brush. small strokes and lots of them to kind of build the colors an definition back up from where it's good to where it's not so good. you just kind of push the color to where you want it. i keep the opacity on the brush under 50 usually and often as low as 24 or even 18. this pushes just a bit at a time so as to not glob the color all at once. the size of the brush at this level is usually only 2 to 8 pixels, depending. so, you're just pushing the nearby colors over the white, little by little.

now, the push brush, being a smudge type, tends to blur things just a bit. you normally dont notice this much when working this close in on things, but sometimes it shows. when it does, i use the clone tool to add back texture from a nearby area. again, keeping the clone on a fairly low setting and dabbing the texture in bit by bit until it looks ok.

i also use the push tool to reconstruct lines, especially small lines. just grab the color where it's ok and drag this to make a new line or strengthen an existing one.

the airbrush tool comes in to add saturation mostly or to add color to an area so that i can then push it. i rebuilt the eyebrow by airbrushing it first. i grabbed the color necessary from the other eyebrow. and i shld mention here that all the push, clone and airbrushing is done a blank layer which is over the normal image layer. just set push and clone to 'use all layers'. this means when you airbrush in a color to this blank layer and then push it, you're now pushing the airbrushed color and not the white that was there. this is very helpful.

now, because the area worked on was mostly affected by the glare/reflection, you had a general fading/whitish tone to the entire thing. so again, we pick up the colors needed from the existing and in the palette we strengthen them a bit, usually by making that color a bit of a stronger hue or a darker shade. not always, but at least some of the time. then, with the airbrush set at a VERY low setting, like 5 or under, and the density set also pretty low, maybe in the 30 or even 20 range, and with the 'hardness' set to 50 or under, you dab in the airbrushing. the reason you dab is that you dont want a streak of color and you dont want the density to overlap itself if you were brushing. this would give too solid a color and no texture. by dabbing you lay down the exact pattern of the airbrush tool. occaisionally you might streak the paint with a continuous flow, but not often. by constantly changing your colors to match up with the area you're working on, you eventually can wipe out that whitish faded sort of tone and replace with good color.

ok, so i did all this working around the eye itself. i did nothing to the iris or pupil, except to remove some of the white glare, until i had all the surrounding area built back up. the reason for this is i knew i was going to simply make a new eye and i wanted good definition as a guide to where to place the new eye. by defining the surrounding area first, i knew exactly where to place the new eye.

to add in the new eye i used psp's 'red eye removal' tool, the long version, not the quick automated one. this is an excellent tool for making or fixing lots of different eye problems. it doesnt just remove red-eye, it can actually make a new eye. it has quite a number of pre-sets which are nothing more than irises and pupils. you can adjust many of the factors, including iris size, pupil lightness/darkness, iris color, glint size and brightness and so on. so i studied the other eye and found it to be a sort of mostly green, but slightly blue color. so, i used one of the preset green ones from the tool, adjusted the size and other factors as best i could and set it in place.

of course, the eye you set has to be covered a bit. you hardly ever see the full iris in an image. skin covers usually part of the bottom or top or both. so, i simply grabbed the push tool again and pushed the proper color over the green iris where it was needed. and this again is another reason for doing all that surrounding area first; it just makes this stage much easier.

ok, so the last step was that the iris color wasnt quite right. the presets are good, but they dont always match up 100%. so, back to the airbrush. again, using a dabbing application, i simply chose colors to bring the new eye as close as i could to the existing eye.

all in all, this was pretty meticulous work. i was zoomed in a lot and did ALL hand work. there were no filters or automated processes on this one at all. sometimes you just have to accept that there is no filter that could do this and then do it. this is also one reason i only did one eye besides, what fun for you if i did all the work

sometimes you can get away with shortcuts and filters and so on. in fact, i even tried a selection of the area and tried some, but it was obvious to me that this wasnt going to be one of those times. the size and amount and shape of the glare was just such that no shortcut was going to do the job the way it shld be done. i love all the filters and plugins and tweaky, little cute things that these modern editors have and i have tons of them, but sometimes there is just no substitute for good old zoomed in, pixel by pixel hand work. and in the long run, it's often more satisfying.

so, i'm glad you liked it and i'm glad you said you dont care how long each image is going to take this is no quickie process

craig

[gho64]

Thank You Craig for the detailed information.

I have never used Paint Shop Pro 10 for image correction. I have always use Adobe Photoshop CS2 for any image corrections so I am not sure that I can use a Completely New Program (PSP 10) to remove the glare in the glasses.

I will purchase the program and give it a try.

Best Regards,
Hersul

[gho64]

Thank You Syd,

Your removal of the glare is great. Did you use Photoshop or another image correction program to achieve your outstanding results??

Have a wonderful afternoon and Thanks again I am overwhelmed by all the great advise I have received in solving this monumental problem.

YOU GUYS AND GIRLS ARE THE VERY BEST. You share your expert talent unselfishly with those of us who have not yet reached your level of image manipulation and correction. I am so very happy that I found this site.

Hersul

[Gina_D]

Originally Posted by Syd

I did the same as Ken and Craig. Used the clone tool to clone good bits onto a new layer. You need to open a new layer, select the clone tool and then check the box "use all layers". Once cloned you can then rotate, flip or move (by one pixel increments if you like) and position the cloned part very precisely. Temporarily turn down the layer opacity for exact placement. Set the layer mode to dark so that you only affect the light pixels and thus retain more of the original picture.

Sincerely Syd

Wow, Syd... I have to say, those results are amazing. Looks fantastic. Putting this on my list of exercises to try using this method!

Gina

[Flora]

Hi everybody,

... here is what I managed to do with this picture following, mostly, the technique described here