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Reducing Flash Glare in Photoshop?

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gecko77

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Has anyone got any tips for reducing glare from flash in photoshop? I am sure its better to take steps to avoid it in the first place but I was hoping to reduce the glare on cheek and nose on this pic I took this weekend



Advice appreciated, I am not great with photoshop!
 
Although with care you could use the cloning or healing brush to improve the image its quite difficult to make it perfect.

In future you could get the model to apply subtle makeup to eliminate the shinny parts and turn the camera tone control down to reduce the contrast and check the highlight display.
Regards,
Bruce.
 
If it is shot in RAW you could try to drag the exposure compensation slider all the way down, to see how much of the glare you can recover, and then try to blend this in with the correct exposure. Else probably a 30-50% opacity healing brush will do it for you, like the previous poster suggested.
Regards, Thomas
 
Ok thanks both will give that a go, thanks for the advice. No unfortunately not shot in raw just fine JPG. Was shot in a nightclub where shooting raw tends to take more space than I have!
 
In Scott Kelby's book, "Photoshop CS2 for Digital Photographers", he explains how to fix what he calls "hotspots". I haven't looked at it in a while but I think his technique uses the healing brush.

If you don't get another answer and I can find mine, I'll try to look it up.

--
Bryan V.
P.S. I've had amnesia for as long as I can remember.
 
Never tried this before so I thought I'd have a go.

First tried the spot healing/healing brush - didn't like the lack of texture it produced.

This was done with the clone tool: small brush (8-10px); opacity 28%. Repeated application, small areas at a time - being careful to select skin with similar "colour" to the target area - and vary selection to get tonality.

For what it's worth here's my attempt - took about 10 minutes:



--
Regards
Kev G

 
u may use clone & touch-up affected areas....play with % opacity to make it more natural looks...
--
Rz
 
This can be fixed but the result may not be perfect. So the best bet is to shoot with a good light setup... Here is the brief steps for photoshop:

Select the clone stamp tool, choose a soft edge brush, set opacity to about 50%, and change blend mode to "Darken". After that, just clone away the flash spots.

Max
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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Digital photography tips and tricks
http://www.dptnt.com
 
forget the healing brush....it has a tendency to bleed unwanted tones from other areas of the face..

what I suggest is make an identical layer ..and on that layer either use the clone tool at about 30% and take tones from nearby areas and fill in the offending glare..

or what I have been doing is using the brush tool at lo opacity and sampling the skin near the glare and painting over it , a little like applying makeup (which would have helped in the first place..NOW, the trick....change the layer mode to DARKEN.....that way the only retouching that is being applied is that which is darker..

before you flatten,, you might tweek the opacity of the layer..some glare might be desirable..
 
Use the clone tool set to Darken mode with an opacity of about 15%

select a skin tone in an area near where you want to recover the blown out section.

use the clone tool to blend in the blown out areas. because you have a low opacity level set, you can use the tool to balance the repair with the surrounding skin tones
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k-blad/
 
Thanks all for the advice and Kev for your efforts, much appreciated. Will have a go with the clone tool tonight.
 
Thanks again for the advice. My retouched version, defiantly an improvement on the original!

 
Can I recommend you post your sample and question in the retouching forum. Many of the people who contribute there have exquisite Photoshop skills and you will be completely amazed at some of the work they will do on your shot.

Not only will you see some extraordinary makeovers on your shot, you'll also be offered lots of tips on how to achieve the outcomes you are looking for.

Give it a go...you'll be blown away, I promise! The Retouch forum is at the bottom of the list when you hover your mouse over Forums/Discussions button.
cheers - kevin
 
I posted a photo at the retouching forum requesting help. There was an element in the image I wanted removed, and the other background colors blended seamlessly. I couldn't do it. The posters over there returned various revisions, all using their amazing retouching skills. In fact, one of the retouchers remade the photo exactly as I wanted - no charge :-))

The retouched photo, printed at 8x12", matted and framed, is now proudly displayed on one of my many photo-covered walls.

The retouching forum rules.
 
I use a paintbrush at 10% of some skintone nearby and just go over things a little. This clears up the smaller spots, and is easier to use than the clone tool...

for bigger things I'll use that, and fill in around the edges with the clone tool, this will help preserve the pattern of the skin a little more.

If I really wanted to get into things I'd make a new layer, use the patch tool and just cover those spots as if they weren't there, then set the layer to like 30% or something, either on it's own or on top of me already using a paintbrush and rubberstamp tool.

EDIT...
The best way to solve this is though lights and makeup!

--
http://www.andrewthomasdesigns.com
 
Duplicate the layer in PS. Use curves to decrease the lightness. Put this modified layer below the top layer. Use the eraser at 45% to selectively delete the top layer. Works well for me.

GL

--
Nikon D50
Sigma 18-200 DC
Nikon 50 mm 1.8
Nikon 50 mm 1.4
Nikon 80-200 AF-D f2.8
Tamron 28-75 f2.8
Sigma 10-20 HSM
Lensbaby three G
SB-600 flash

Lens Lust is Bad!!!

 
andrewthomasdesigns said:
Ben Yeh said:
Duplicate the layer in PS. Use curves to decrease the lightness. Put
this modified layer below the top layer. Use the eraser at 45% to
selectively delete the top layer. Works well for me.
Click to expand...
that's assuming there is something to work with...
Click to expand...
True, true. If the highlights are completely blown then you wont be able to do this method. Of course, you can simply clone a portion of skin to the highlight area and then do the trick I posted above.

--
Nikon D50
Sigma 18-200 DC
Nikon 50 mm 1.8
Nikon 50 mm 1.4
Nikon 80-200 AF-D f2.8
Tamron 28-75 f2.8
Sigma 10-20 HSM
Lensbaby three G
SB-600 flash

Lens Lust is Bad!!!

 
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