Lens flare on face

[PamT]

Hello again,

I would love to know the techniques any of you would use to approach correction of this photo. Notice the lens flare on the man's face and woman's legs.

I'm sorry I have not participated in the forum as yet... I have been out looking for work!! I love this website, though.. it is just a treasure.

Pam

[TwinbNJ]

Hello Pam - I just did a quick shot at this. There are many people here that are much better at this than me.

I used the clone stamp to take out the "glaring" points. Then duplicated the layer and used Image> Adjustmets>Color mixer to work the channels (still learning how to work them). When I got the look I wanted flattened the image and used the lasso tool to get the head of the man with the major flare. Did copy and paste, did a variation of the Color mixer and brightness and contrast. Used the erease and very light smudge to try and make it look natural. Here is what it looks like. Then used the USM --- not perfect but does show this is very workable.

Good luck!

[roger_ele]

Hi Pam

I used a screen shot of the finished photo with the layers pallet included ... the sequence I did these is from the bottom layer up.

1) adjusted overall with levels
2)adjusted color balance and brightness of flare spots with curves
3)color mode layer, used clone stamp in color mode to paint some spots into the same color as good spots
4)nomal mode layer, used clone stamp in normal mode for areas that still needed it
5)hue/saturation layer, colorize checked to color pants

In terms of thought process, I didn't know how I was going to do this when I started, I just follow the sequence of doing general adjustments that seem appropriate, then keep refining until done.

Hope this helps, Roger

[Andrew B.]

Here is the basic technique I used.

1. A new empty layer above the picture set to color blending mode. I borrowed color from nearby areas of the picture and brushed it over the red. For example, the second woman from the left, I picked up color from the top of her pants and brushed it over the lower part and did a similar move on other areas.

2. On the same layer I also used the clone tool to transfer color. This worked better for coloring the trees behind because the cloning color was less even.

But this didn't fix everything because some areas were too light from the lens flare, and so the new color was too washed out.

3. Add a new empty layer above the color layer. Fill with 50% gray and set blending mode to overlay. Now, using the Burn tool go over the areas that are too light. If you happen to burn too much, switch to a soft brush set to partial opacity and brush some 50% gray back in. With the man's face I was more careful with the burning. I made very even strokes across the entire face so it would darken evenly. Then I used a little dodge tool to add some highlight on his forehead. I also did some extra burning on eyebrows and a couple shadow areas. I didn't know his skin tone so I borrowed from someone else. But I left some reddish feel because the other faces had some red cast.

Now all that was left was a bright spot next to his head.

4. I added a new empty layer set to normal blending mode. I set the clone tool to sample from all layers. Then I cloned the adjacent tree onto the spot.

[PamT]

I'm just in awe of the way you all are willing and happy to help and advise! Thank you SO much. I am going to combine techniques and see if I can do half as well as you all did. Anyone else wants to play with this please DO! The techniques that are demonstrated are wonderful.

Thank you again

Pam

[TwinbNJ]

I agree Pam!

Thanks Andrew and Roger, I learned a lot also. I'm going to try the steps also.

[Andrew B.]

Hi Pam. I have a question. Is the man with the flare spot on his face wearing glasses? Here's why I ask. As I was trying to bring back the detail in his face I could not tell if what I was seeing was a hint of glasses or not. And so I held off refining this area any further. But I would like knowing because it might help me understand similar conditions.

[PamT]

Andrew,

Yes, he is. I have it scanned at 1200 dpi and looking at that depth you can see them. If you would like to download a larger version of this for fun (they one I posted before was a mediocre quality jpg)... I will post it at 300 dpi (6 megs) at this address:

http://65.87.161.17/images/family-orig.psd

Pam

[G. Couch]

This image is a great example of damage primarily to one channel. If you look at all 3 channels, the lens flare only shows up in the red...and just slightly in the green.

My take on this one-

1. Made an overall levels adjustment to bring back contrast to the image
2. I made a feathered selection of the discolored areas.
3. Used a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. Set the Output Channel to Red, reduced the red slider to 0, increased the green slider to 34% and Blue to 58%.
4. created a new empty layer, set blending mode to Color, and painted the correct color back into the damaged areas by sampling undamaged areas of the image.
5. fixed a few slight problem areas using masks and curves adjustments.

[Andrew B.]

Pam said:
>I will post it at 300 dpi (6 megs) at..

Thanks.

[Flora]

Hi Pam!

You've received very good help already ... and here is yet another way to try to correct your picture ...

I did the following:

1) Duplicated the BG Layer.

2) Desaturated the reddish flare areas using the Sponge Tool (very soft brush).

3) Used the Clone Tool to remove the worst glare.

4) Adjusted the overall Colour with the Curves.

5) Created new Layers (one for each area to colorize) set the Blending to Color and after having chosen the 'right' colour from nearby areas, using a fuzzy brush, I painted over the desaturared/faded areas. In some cases this procedure alone wasn't enough so, I duplicated the Color Layer, set the Blending to Soft Light/Overlay, and adjusted the Opacity until satisfied with the result.

6) Used the High Pass Filter to sharpen the image a bit.