Studio lights reflecting in peoples glasses

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connersz

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Jamie
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Does anyone know of a way to improve these in post. I'm talking about reflections of umbrellas or softboxes in peoples glasses.
 
You improve them in camera, with careful light / head positioning. There's a half days learning playing about to get this right in camera.
 
You can't tilt their glasses in post. Well, I suppose you could, but you'd be tilting the reflections as well.

Easy to solve at the time of shooting (I'd say more like a few seconds of moving your angle of view and or the subject's head, glasses or the lights rather than half a day ;) ).

If you have to fix it in post, careful cloning is probably going to be the way forward - I wouldn't bother trying to get rid of the reflection entirely though. It's not always a bad thing.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, It's not too bad and in fact I only have a couple like that out of a large set but I was specifically looking for ideas of what I could do in post to improve them, cheers anyway.
 
connersz said:
Thanks for the suggestions, It's not too bad and in fact I only have a couple like that out of a large set but I was specifically looking for ideas of what I could do in post to improve them, cheers anyway.
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Reflections like this can vary greatly, so as always, if you want some real advice, posting an example for people to have a bash at would be the way to go. :thumbs:
 
connersz said:
Thanks for the suggestions, It's not too bad and in fact I only have a couple like that out of a large set but I was specifically looking for ideas of what I could do in post to improve them, cheers anyway.
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Why specifically in post? surely it would be better to do that in camera whilst arranging the picture?
 
Jayst84 said:
But if you have a picture you would like to use, that unfortunately has reflections you don't want... (as Jamie has already suggested he has).
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Ah ok i must have missed that comment, i shall re-read
 
Light reflects off a surface at the same angle it strikes, like a snooker ball off the cushion. Use that knowledge to avoid reflections, and also for positioning a reflector, or bouncing off a wall or ceiling.

For example, if the light is to one side of the camera, and the subject has shoulders square to it and then turns their head slightly towards the camera, that's a perfect angle for the light to be reflected straight into the lens. It usually only takes a small change of angles - either subject position, light or camera - for the reflection to bounce off somewhere else harmlessly.
 
HoppyUK said:
Light reflects off a surface at the same angle it strikes, like a snooker ball off the cushion. Use that knowledge to avoid reflections, and also for positioning a reflector, or bouncing off a wall or ceiling.

For example, if the light is to one side of the camera, and the subject has shoulders square to it and then turns their head slightly towards the camera, that's a perfect angle for the light to be reflected straight into the lens. It usually only takes a small change of angles - either subject position, light or camera - for the reflection to bounce off somewhere else harmlessly.
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Yes but once again like the others you missed the point where I mentioned "in post" I had 7 people in the studio for a group shot and when you're in the middle of checking 100 different points it is easy enough to miss the reflection in a couple of snaps that you want to keep. If the answer to my question is "no" then that's fine.
 
connersz said:
Yes but once again like the others you missed the point where I mentioned "in post" I had 7 people in the studio for a group shot and when you're in the middle of checking 100 different points it is easy enough to miss the reflection in a couple of snaps that you want to keep. If the answer to my question is "no" then that's fine.
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No, I didn't miss that. Maybe you missed the point that some info on how to avoid reflections in the first place might be helpful to others.
 
If its a group of 7 people realistically how visible is it? As posted above people really need to see it in order to offer advice but its my suspicion that your prehapse pixel peeling a little too closely and the reality is the client probably will not ever notice unless they order it in a print the size of a wall :eek:
 
If it's on just a couple of shots and you have very similar without: the obvious answer is a head swap.

Because of what your obscuring with the reflection (the eye) a localised cloning is probably out of the question. Where a larger clone from another shot might do it for you.
 
Depends on the kind of glasses.

If they are anti reflective then you will have green blobs. Try removing some green.....

If they are regular glasses then the odds are you have white blobs. Since you can't easily remover white you'll want to carefully clone from an area of skin nearby. Watch out, because typically the skin underneath people's eyes is a different colour and texture from anywhere else on their face.

Obviously this is all supposition. I always shoot perfect pictures in camera. Honest.
 
Its one of those many things in photography that would have taken a few seconds to correctly adjust them in the first place, by simply tilting / changing angles etc.

Alternatively if a very specific look or angle is required in the first place then it time to adjust and move lighting and / or to use flags or bounces.

Even that second method is going to be quicker than doing it in post.

Plus its most likely if done right in the first place it will look much better than if done in post, unless of course you spend even more time in post.

Even with 7 people, you should be checking all those million different things....
 
You realise this thread is exactly like somebody asking directions to get to a place and being told "well, I wouldn't start from here".
 
JonathanRyan said:
You realise this thread is exactly like somebody asking directions to get to a place and being told "well, I wouldn't start from here".
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Well I just thought we was going for the world record of how many people can repeat the same answer to the wrong question in one forum thread. I do appreciate the few who have attempted to answer it though (that includes you). Next time I will ask how to do it in camera and I might get answers to this question ;).
 
connersz said:
Well I just thought we was going for the world record of how many people can repeat the same answer to the wrong question in one forum thread. I do appreciate the few who have attempted to answer it though (that includes you). Next time I will ask how to do it in camera and I might get answers to this question ;).
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I appreciate your frustration and i was one of them, your original post, maybe if you had explained the situation better people would have realised what had happened and in camera was too late as an option?:D
 
I did both, but it really is that question.

My processing skills aren't the greatest, so I always work from the point of cloning the largest area I can get away with, eye sockets are tricky, head swaps are quite easy. But, again, I shoot with that in mind.
 
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