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I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).

Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Gaiko

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
> have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
> to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
> take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>
> Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
> picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>
> -Gaiko
>
Do you have an example or 2 you could share with us, Gaiko. Depending on
what the glare is appearing on would determine the method of reducing
and/or removing it. Glare on a face, for example, could be removed by
careful cloning from good areas of skin using a high transparency for
the clone tool. Or filling the area with a high transparency and then
adding a little "noise". The list goes on and on, depending on the
subject which method you might use.
If you can supply an image, I am happy to correct it to the best of my
ability and then tell you step by step how I went about it.

Brian.

Brian wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>> I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
>> have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
>> to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
>> take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>>
>> Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
>> picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>
>> -Gaiko

If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
do is the following:

1. Select by colour the glare area.
2. Feather selection.
3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.

Joal.

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 13:23:31 GMT, Joal Heagney <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Brian wrote:
>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>>> I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
>>> have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
>>> to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
>>> take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>>>
>>> Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
>>> picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>>>
>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>>
>>> -Gaiko
>
>If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
>do is the following:
>
>1. Select by colour the glare area.
>2. Feather selection.
>3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.
>
>Joal.

If the spots are truly "washed out" meaning no info exept the purest
white... that will not help.

Joal Heagney wrote:
> Brian wrote:
>
>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>>> I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
>>> have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
>>> to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
>>> take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>>>
>>> Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
>>> picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>>>
>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>>
>>> -Gaiko
>
>
> If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
> do is the following:
>
> 1. Select by colour the glare area.
> 2. Feather selection.
> 3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.
>
> Joal.

I use the Patch Tool. Well, most of the time.

Clyde

ZONED! wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 13:23:31 GMT, Joal Heagney <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Brian wrote:
>>
>>>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
>>>>have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
>>>>to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
>>>>take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>>>>
>>>>Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
>>>>picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>>>>
>>>>Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>
>>>>-Gaiko
>>
>>If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
>>do is the following:
>>
>>1. Select by colour the glare area.
>>2. Feather selection.
>>3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.
>>
>>Joal.
>
>
> If the spots are truly "washed out" meaning no info exept the purest
> white... that will not help.

Not necessarily. If the spots are small enough, by using curves they
tend to stand out less in the overall image. I used it once on a beach
scene (Damn me if I didn't wipe the images off my hard-drive though.) to
deemphasis the litter on the sand. Also, that's where the feather
selection comes in - by blurring into the rest of the image, you regain
pseudo-information. *grins*

Joal

Joal Heagney <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> >>If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
> >>do is the following:
> >>
> >>1. Select by colour the glare area.
> >>2. Feather selection.
> >>3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.
> >>
> >>Joal.
> >
> >
> > If the spots are truly "washed out" meaning no info exept the purest
> > white... that will not help.
>
> Not necessarily. If the spots are small enough, by using curves they
> tend to stand out less in the overall image. I used it once on a beach
> scene (Damn me if I didn't wipe the images off my hard-drive though.) to
> deemphasis the litter on the sand. Also, that's where the feather
> selection comes in - by blurring into the rest of the image, you regain
> pseudo-information. *grins*

You forget to mention one thing. When used in the normal way, Curves
does not lower the value of pure white. You need to drag the upper right
top of the curve downwards, something many people wouldn't realize. You
can also use Levels and drag the LOWEST right slider (the one underneath
that gradient) to the left. It still won't be very pretty though, all
you do is make white a little bit grey.


--
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl
Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

Clone tool is the way to go if you want to avoid boundary conditions. Charge
extra for this stuff while you can; the photography talent out there is
getting worse every day and pretty soon some bright person will come up with
a tragic, half-assed "bloom eliminator" or something like that that the
market will think is just wonderfull. It won't be, but they will be happy.

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:52:48 GMT, Joal Heagney <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>ZONED! wrote:
>> On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 13:23:31 GMT, Joal Heagney <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Brian wrote:
>>>
>>>>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I have a few pretty good pictures i took with one big problem, they
>>>>>have flash reflections (glare?), that is the washed out white spot due
>>>>>to taking a picture of a reflective surface with a flash (it was a
>>>>>take-it-before-it-passes kinda thing and i forgot about the flash).
>>>>>
>>>>>Is there a way to get rid of or reduce the flash whiteness from the
>>>>>picture using Photoshop (CS) or Gimp?
>>>>>
>>>>>Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>>
>>>>>-Gaiko
>>>
>>>If it's a reflection off a metallic/plastic surface, one thing you can
>>>do is the following:
>>>
>>>1. Select by colour the glare area.
>>>2. Feather selection.
>>>3. Use Curves to reduce the intensity of the spots.
>>>
>>>Joal.
>>
>>
>> If the spots are truly "washed out" meaning no info exept the purest
>> white... that will not help.
>
>Not necessarily. If the spots are small enough, by using curves they
>tend to stand out less in the overall image. I used it once on a beach
>scene (Damn me if I didn't wipe the images off my hard-drive though.) to
>deemphasis the litter on the sand. Also, that's where the feather
>selection comes in - by blurring into the rest of the image, you regain
>pseudo-information. *grins*
>
>Joal
It looks like crap to me *s*

ZONED! wrote:

> It looks like crap to me *s*

Oh well. As they say Your Mileage May Vary.

Joal