How to remove glare on this beetle?

[Janice Jan]

Hi, are there ways to remove the glare (caused by the flash) on this beetle?

 

I tried cloning but results wasn't good. I am still new to using Affinity Photo.

 

Please advise.

 

Thanks

 

Regards

Janice

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Janice. :)

 

You can't really recover details that are completely blown out, but you can improve the definition of the overall image by duplicating it and setting the blend mode of the duplicate layer to 'Multiply'.

 

To work at the pixel level (so that you can correct small areas of the photo instead of treating the entire photo as a single object) right-click the duplicate layer in the Layers panel and choose 'Rasterize'. As for the correction itself, the Clone Brush Tool is a bit of a blunt instrument: I think you'll better results with the Healing Brush Tool (which blends in information from the source area rather than simply stamping it on top of the area you're working on).

[John Rostron]

I wonder how you got this glare. It is unusual for the light to be reflected back to the lens from an oblique surface such as this. Where was the flash in relation to the beetle?

[Janice Jan]

I wonder how you got this glare. It is unusual for the light to be reflected back to the lens from an oblique surface such as this. Where was the flash in relation to the beetle?

I think my flash was too strong on this beetle which has a shiny surface.

[Janice Jan]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Janice. :)

 

You can't really recover details that are completely blown out, but you can improve the definition of the overall image by duplicating it and setting the blend mode of the duplicate layer to 'Multiply'.

 

To work at the pixel level (so that you can correct small areas of the photo instead of treating the entire photo as a single object) right-click the duplicate layer in the Layers panel and choose 'Rasterize'. As for the correction itself, the Clone Brush Tool is a bit of a blunt instrument: I think you'll get better results with the Healing Brush Tool (which blends in information from the source area rather than simply stamping it on top of the area you're working on).

 

Thank you for your advice.  Will try it out.

[toltec]

I like the clone tool. The only problem is, knowing what should be there, i.e. in the head between the eyes.  Once you get a bit of detail in you could select the area and use HSL Adjustments to darken it, or change the colour.

 

Play around with the brush size, the opacity and the hardness. If you set the opacity of the clone stamp lower, you can go over the area two or three times to blend it in.

 

A bit of blurring using the blur tool (droplet) at very low opacity, say 20% can blend in the odd artifact.

[myclay]

Great tips here, additionally use the colour picker and paint over areas which you want to change with the same lightness value and then use the patch tool to copy details over.

 

For fixing the eyes;
use Highpass, set it to Hard light and the live high pass to contrast negate.

most important part; use masks to isolate the effects to certain areas.
and use Layers when using the patching.

Add HSL Shift Adjustment or other adjustments for changing the overall colour.

There are probably more ways to fix this image but for a start this should help. :)

[Janice Jan]

I like the clone tool. The only problem is, knowing what should be there, i.e. in the head between the eyes.  Once you get a bit of detail in you could select the area and use HSL Adjustments to darken it, or change the colour.

 

Play around with the brush size, the opacity and the hardness. If you set the opacity of the clone stamp lower, you can go over the area two or three times to blend it in.

 

A bit of blurring using the blur tool (droplet) at very low opacity, say 20% can blend in the odd artifact.

Thank you

[Janice Jan]

Great tips here, additionally use the colour picker and paint over areas which you want to change with the same lightness value and then use the patch tool to copy details over.

 

For fixing the eyes;

use Highpass, set it to Hard light and the live high pass to contrast negate.

 

most important part; use masks to isolate the effects to certain areas.

and use Layers when using the patching.

 

Add HSL Shift Adjustment or other adjustments for changing the overall colour.

 

There are probably more ways to fix this image but for a start this should help. :)

 

Thank you for your advice.

[cybertec69]

This happened to me with this subject using a ring flash,  I almost blew out one of the eyes with the flash bouncing off the eyes back onto the lens and sensor.  

 

[firstdefence]

Practice makes perfect, I know this is a given but experimenting with close-up photography before you take the actual shots can save hours of time later. I used to buy kids toy bugs and set up a small portable studio to test outside and inside, once I'd got a few notes taken down (i.e. formula's for flash settings, angles etc) I'd go and try those formula's out in the real world. Not only do you get better images but you get more images because you know what to do and what to set the camera too prior to taking images. 

 

I learned a lot from a Professional photographer and he'd just look at a situation manually set the camera and get great results, he said its just a formula for a given setting, dial in the formula you want to express the effect you want people to see.

[Petar Petrenko]

The best advice: try to avoid flash as much as possible.