Cars reflection

Vonkara

« on: August 31, 2008, 18:33 »

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Can somebody help me with the reflections I have on a series of vintage cars. You can see me taking the pictures with all the people looking behind me or the sky and everything on the shiny parts.

The colors are not that much affected and I already try to blur the parts. But I don't know exactly what is acceptable or what is the good way to do the job??


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JC-SL

« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2008, 22:08 »

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Hello Vonkara...

if you don't have control of the cars you're shooting, then you're SOL. If you do have control, take your cars to the widest field (carparks also work) you can find either early morning or late, late afternoon and shoot from a level that takes out the horizon.... or hire a car studio and "control" your reflection. Those are the only 2 things I've been able to do with cars... good luck.

The clouds don't put you're image off, just the other cars and buildings in the shot do.

cheers. JC


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litifeta

« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2008, 22:40 »

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I have done a lot of cars. The reflections are a pain. I tried a filter and this did not work.

One way - short of the studio option - is to reduce the saturation.


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madelaide

Premium Member

« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2008, 23:28 »

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I share your pain... Last year I photographed many shiny lustrous vintage cars and got all sorts of reflections. I noticed that some blur would help, but certainly looks fake.

Regards,
Adelaide


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Graffoto

« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2008, 00:41 »

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You should be able to use the clone tool and healing brush.... but its a lot of work and my not be worth the trouble.

There was a nasty reflection of me taking this shot in the car's door. I had to clone and heal it out.


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anonymous

« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2008, 07:56 »

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Quote from: nosaya on September 01, 2008, 00:41

I agree...and it would take HOURS to get that girl out of the photo too! Grin


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Vonkara

« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2008, 08:18 »

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LOL! Thank you people at least now I know that there's no easy way to do this. Then let try the clone tool until I go crazy Grin


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Vonkara

« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2008, 19:16 »

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Here's how it look like after around 2 hours of post processing.

I used the clone tool with opacity reduced to around 40% and sharpness to 30%. Approximatively 300 clicks later it was not enough but it was going in the right way. Then I used the motion blur filter and it fixed the discoloration between the different clicks I've made.

Before

After

There must be a better way to do the job and I hope it will pass everywhere. If someone still have a clue it will be great for further work with reflections. But for now I don't want to take photograph of shiny cars for a while...

hey, 8 hours of post processing for 5 pictures, solving one problem behind another and I don't talk only about reflections. Oh I forgot my cat is outside since yesterday LOL


« Last Edit: September 02, 2008, 19:18 by Vonkara »	Ignore \| Logged

Mshake

« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2008, 20:49 »

#link

You might want to try another method.

Duplicate the background layer. Make a selection of the entire fender. Feather it by 1 or 2 pixels. Sample a red color, shoot for the area right under the headlight. Now fill that selection with that color. Heres the trick, change your blending mode to either overlay or soft light. It will be much darker but thats ok. The color has filled in a lot of the blue from the sky and the other light colors.

Duplicate the layer again by draging the layer down to the new layer icon. Now take somewhat large soft tipped brush and sample areas near those car and building reflections. Lower the brush opacity to maybe 20 to 30% and carefully paint over the cars and anything else you don't want showing. Keep sampling the colors near where your painting. Leave the clouds in on the top side of the fender to make it look more realistic. This requires some practice. Do it on this seperate layer and you can just delete it and start over if you dont like it.

The photo is still dark so lets make an adjustment layer, pick anything like levels or curves. Don't adjust any settings , just click ok. Now change that layers blending mode to screen and the image will lighten back up for you.

Thats it and heres the result I got after a few minutes. With more time you can do even better.