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Fix a reflection in AP


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In attempting to repair a photo, I'm running into a series of small-area corrections to make and not having any success.

1. A severe down light has caused a white-out reflection on the man's head.

2. And caused the woman's face to need some lightening.

The other shadows and highlights are not a problem (to me).

However, at some point in my corrections I will need to adjust the red cast.

 

A portion of the afphoto is attached with the problem areas so you can see the areas I'm concerned about. I worked in the Photo Persona because the Develop Persona didn't seem to offer anything better.

 

I think my primary problem with the white-out is there is no information in the white to adjust. Therefore, my attempts at Curves and Levels didn't work. By the way, I'm not good at Curves so I wasn't surprised. Also, I can't constrain Curves to the problem areas and it causes adjustments to the whole image.

 

So I tried the Burn brush and the result was really ugly. Maybe no pixels to burn again, or just my inexperience.

 

So I tried the healing brush thinking it could sample the better scalp and transform the reflection. Still really ugly results.

 

So I tried the Clone brush and could not eliminate the cloned similarities of the scalp pattern. It looked like a cloned job.

 

So I tried Alfred's often-cited trick of duplicating layers and using multiply mode and Opacity settings until you get a fix, but this is apparently not an application for that technique either.

 

I would appreciate some help from people who have "faced" this before. 

:)

 

 reflection01.afphoto

 

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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When the highlights are clipped, and you are not working on a RAW image, there's no chance to recover what is lost.

What you can do, instead, is painting over that area, or at least you can try.

Here's a quick and dirty attempt.

 

Before:

before.jpg

 

After:

after.jpg

Andrew
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Win10 x64 AMD Threadripper 1950x, 64GB, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB, dual GTX 1080ti
Dual Monitor Dell Ultra HD 4k P2715Q 27-Inch

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When the highlights are clipped, and you are not working on a RAW image, there's no chance to recover what is lost.

What you can do, instead, is painting over that area, or at least you can try.

Here's a quick and dirty attempt...

 

verysame, thanks, you confirmed my fear. No RAW, just a phone-camera snapshot jpg. I wonder if your slight painting in that area would produce enough data to then burn-brush in a bit more. I might try that. Thanks for showing me your sample.

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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I personally think it's very unsafe to push it even further.

When I tried with the paint layer, as soon as I wanted to push it more the result was flat and fake or, if you intend to use some burn, can get a very odd look.

I would just work on the white balance and, in order to add a little more light to her, you can create a new curve layer, bump up the brightness a tad and mask the face are so that's the only part that gets more light.

 

after_02jpg.jpg

 

I'm not a skin tone retoucher by any means, it's a complicated area.

I always wanted to re-read Dan Margulis but never had the time. Nonetheless, it's a reading that's well worth its time.

 

In the picture above, the light starts to feel better imho, but now it needs some good balance on the skin tone.

 

 

Andrew
-
Win10 x64 AMD Threadripper 1950x, 64GB, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB, dual GTX 1080ti
Dual Monitor Dell Ultra HD 4k P2715Q 27-Inch

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Thanks for chiming in MBd.

 

Agreed, LAB can be very powerful.

A LAB curve is what I've used in the last test posted above, but it takes time to be mastered.

Also, in PS dragging ALT and moving the curve points gives an instant feedback on the darkest/brightest spot, something I'm missing in Photo (probably a threshold adjustment could do).

Andrew
-
Win10 x64 AMD Threadripper 1950x, 64GB, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB, dual GTX 1080ti
Dual Monitor Dell Ultra HD 4k P2715Q 27-Inch

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https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/22571-how-to-fill-in-color/?p=105977

This approach utilising LAB can also produce good results

 

More on lab

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/22011-learn-lab/

 

The best way/ easiest way would be to shoot RAW next time and be extra careful with the lighting/ exposure...

 

this is how I would do it (see attached). I'm sure there are a 100 other ways too. Michael...

 

MBd, I showed my wife, who took the picture and then asked me to fix it, what you said about shoot RAW and check conditions before you click the iPhone shutter. She laughed hysterically for a very long time. :lol:

I appreciate your links to LAB adjustments and will look at those refs tonight (I'm on USA time) and REALLY appreciate your time to help out.

 

Michael, I am anxious to see your adjustments tonight when I get to my PC with AP installed. Thanks for your assistance. Your note that there are likely 100 ways to put info in a photo area where none was captured is intriguing. As you saw, I tried a few and probably just lack the skill to pull them off believably.

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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This might be similar as others above.....

 

Picked a sample skin tone color from the area surrounding the blow out.

Painted  a little patch and set the blend to Average.

Played with a couple adjustments: Levels, color balance, noise.

(I only addressed the forehead)

 

post-12544-0-82513600-1486401805.png

 

JimmyJack, sounds like your approach was similar to some I tried and I can't wait to see your adjustments when I get home tonight - thanks for uploading a method for me to learn from. I did not think to try a Blend Average and I want to experiment with that. Thanks.

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi jer,

 

I have a different technique to fix this problem. Please see the file attached.

This approach lets you adjust colour/tonality and the amount of texture, despite that in this image you can't see very well the full impact it can have because of the lack of resolution and texture in the all image. I hope this could give you another solution.

 

I also addressed a bit of the colour cast but this is a tricky one since I believe we are going to see colours differently.

 

Pedro

 

reflection01-PS.afphoto.zip

Photographer, Designer, Climber & Happy Gardener

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Hi jer,

 

I have a different technique to fix this problem. Please see the file attached.

This approach lets you adjust colour/tonality and the amount of texture, despite that in this image you can't see very well the full impact it can have because of the lack of resolution and texture in the all image. I hope this could give you another solution.

 

I also addressed a bit of the colour cast but this is a tricky one since I believe we are going to see colours differently.

 

Pedro

 

Pedro, nicely done. And I really learned from the two color correction layers. I keep forgetting you don't have to try and get it all done in just one adjustment layer. Thanks for showing your solution.

♥  WIN 10 AD & AP  ♥  Lenovo Legion Y520 15.6" Laptop

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  • 11 months later...

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