Retouching reflections in glass
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When photographing architectural interiors in the old days, you had to be very careful to not place your lighting in a spot where the light would then create a big reflection in the windows. But these days with digital photography and Photoshop you can place your light anywhere and then deal with the reflections in Photoshop.
To do this I set up my camera on a tripod and lock it all down. Next, I set up all my lights and determine exposure before capturing the interior image the client wants. Once I have captured the interior images, I turn off all strobe lights and interior constant lights as well and without moving the camera, photograph just the windows with no interior lighting. The resulting images will have no reflections.
I usually do this in full stops with the strobes and then just shoot the same series after I turn off all lights.
Here is the image with the reflection for the interior lighting.
Here is the image after turning off all lights. The plan now is to blend this image with the above image in Photoshop.
I next open these two images in Photoshop with the image containing the reflection as my base image meaning it will have the other image placed on a layer above the base image.
Recommended Cameras:
Nikon D500 | Nikon D3300 | Canon EOS Rebel T5 | Sony A7RII | Canon 7D Mark II
I select the window only image and using the Move Tool, will hold down the shift key and drag this image onto the base exposure. By holding down the shift key the window image will register perfectly on top of the base image. Unless of course the camera moved between these two exposures, then you have other problems.
Once the window image sits on top of the base image, I add a layer mask to the window image by going to the drop down menu and clicking as such: LAYER> LAYER MASK> HIDE ALL. This places a layer mask on top of the window layer and since it is filled with black, it hides that layer and you once again see only your base image with reflection.
Now select a soft brush from the tools palette and switch the foreground color to white. Set your opacity to 20% and the flow to 10% and start to paint white onto the black mask where the reflection is at. Brush back and forth until you start to see the reflections disappear. What you are doing is essentially allowing the window layer (no reflections) to start showing through by painting on the black mask that hide it on top of the base layer containing the reflections. You basically are painting the reflections away.
Here you can see the reflection in the windows is gone and also after all corrections are done. Photoshop can easily help you with your interior photography from removing reflections to correcting distorted angles.
Charlie Borland
PPSOP Instructor
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