Editing Reflections In Car Panels - How?

[Snooks]

It would be interesting to know how you guys handle editing images of cars and the reflections that often show up in the panels. Sometimes the reflections can add to the image but on most occasions, I find that it presents simply as a distraction.

reflections.JPG

This snippet shows exactly what I mean. The image has not as yet been edited (RAW) but i have no real idea on a starting point.

Some advice would be most welcome, especially from the Auto Experts that dabble with this issue constantly

[Tannin]

I think you would find it extremely difficult to deal with that sort of thing in post, Snooks. Nigh-on impossible.

I'm no car photographer but I can think of two things you could do,

(1) Use a CPL (circular polarising filter). I've never used one on a car, but they work well to cut reflections on water so I don't see why that would not work.

(2) Don't wash the damn car!

[Snooks]

I think you would find it extremely difficult to deal with that sort of thing in post, Snooks. Nigh-on impossible.

I'm no car photographer but I can think of two things you could do,

(1) Use a CPL (circular polarising filter). I've never used one on a car, but they work well to cut reflections on water so I don't see why that would not work.

(2) Don't wash the damn car!

RAFLMAO

Sadly, most entrants do tend to wash the cars before entering them into the show. I will mention that being dirty would assist me, but I don't think i will get much support.

Seriously though..... I agree with the CPL and had one on but not sure how much I had it active in that photograph. I think i was more focused on the roof and rear of the car rather than even seeing the images in the side panels.

I agree it's hard to resolve, hopefully someone has a magic wand they can lend me

Thanks for the input

[Glenda]

I wouldn't know where to start on this as the reflection basically covers the whole side of the car. I have tried a CPL to get rid of reflections in other than water and haven't found it 100% effective - haven't tried it at a car show though. On the very few occasions I have photographed cars I know I just tried to concentrate on one area of the vehicle eg logo, inside, grill etc. Forgotten how many shots I've deleted which contained me photographing it reflected in the paintwork or chrome.

[John King]

Snooks, book by Hunter, Biver, Fuqua et.al. "Light Science and Magic" is both cheap and excellent. Among other things, it goes into great lengths about how to avoid unwanted reflections.

Sometimes just changing your angle slightly can dramatically change the reflections, or even eliminate most or all of them.

Personally, most of the time I don't mind reflections. Sometimes they are irritating, so I change position.

[ameerat42]

Try air-brushing it out. GIMP has that tool.
A bit of mucken aroun', but...

[Tannin]

hopefully someone has a magic wand they can lend me

Stand in line, Sunny Jim, stand in line!

[Snooks]

LOL at the comments

I will check out that book John, thanks.

Hi AM, problem doing that is not so much the time involved but you always lose some aspect, some shadow that is needed. But it appears that this may be the only option Well....except not even attempting it.

The major issue is not the reflection but the fact I did not see the reflection when taking the photos. I should have expected them

They may go into the too hard folder, a shame, because except for that it had good potential.

[ameerat42]

How about a bit of judicious cloning? ...
snooks-rel.jpg

- That's in the not-so-hard-basket

[Snooks]

How about a bit of judicious cloning? ...
snooks-rel.jpg

- That's in the not-so-hard-basket

I haven't really tried anything on that actual image as yet AM. I didn't wish to waste too much time on it before getting advice, just in case anyone knew a faster and superior way of gaining a good result. The little bit I did try was rubbish

There's two "Car Specialists" on here and I will pm them and ask them for an opinion if they don't happen to wander into the thread tonight I'm sure they encounter this issue very often.

[bobt]

I hate to say this, but this is a case of "prevention is better than cure". Problems like this are best avoided by anticipating them in the first place and not getting that reflection in the shot. Some problems can be cloned, but this one really isn't going to end well i don't think. It's one of the key principles we all forget at times, which is to check backgrounds and unwanted elements before pressing the shutter.

[Geoff79]

Good tips so far about future prevention, but I have to agree with Bob. Trying to “fix” this shot I cannot see being worthwhile. That reflection is almost 1/3 of the photo.

If anything I’d probably make this photo more about the reflection than anything else, personally, if I was to persist with it.

Anyway, Snooks, good luck with your dilemma.

[farmmax]

If you are desperate to do something about the reflections, you can try to tone them down a little with the airbrush tool.

Create a transparent layer above the car photo, and paint on that layer.

Set your brush to very soft, and an opacity of about 50%.

Use the colour picker to pick the colours from the car. the brush strokes should run in parallel lines along the car, lightly over the area with reflections. I work with a pressure sensitive pen instead of a mouse, and it is easier to do a better job with the pen. Each line should have the colour picked from where each brushstroke will begin. This mean every line will be very slightly different in colour. Each line should overlap the last line a little. This is to make them blend in well, but add a sense of the shapes and shadows of the cars surface.

After the reflection has been painted over, lower the opacity of the layer you painted on to find a balance between how much reflection and car details show through the painted layer. It will look more realistic if you do this, because the contours of the car body showing through will make it look better.

Much better, to do everything not to get the reflections there in the first place. I know how difficult this is for car photographers, even under very controlled conditions.

[Snooks]

Thanks for the detailed advice Farmax

I agree totally, prevention is better than cure.

I really do not wish to spend that much time and effort on it.

Cheers

[Dan05]

You can clone it out but it gets noticeable in large areas. But there is a way in photoshop to snip a part of the car that has the same tones and paint it over the areas in question. It is time consuming, a pain and isn’t easy. I have trouble with it.
But it gives the best results.

Bottom line, what I do is look for reflections before hitting the button. I have given up very nice angles and what seems a perfect vantage point because it would be too much work post shot.

I’m happy to help with what I can and have offered to bring my MacBook and show you. Let me know mate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[tandeejay]

While CPL's are great for removing reflections, I suspect you might have problems in this situation due to the curvature of the car. The polarized light reflected from the curved surface is not all going to be polarized in the same direction, so you may find the CPL only partially removes the reflection. Isn't the angle of polarization related to the angle of the surface the light is reflecting from? I'd be interested to see just how much curvature can be in a surface before a CPL starts to fail to remove all the reflection.

Cheers,
John

[Snooks]

You can clone it out but it gets noticeable in large areas. But there is a way in photoshop to snip a part of the car that has the same tones and paint it over the areas in question. It is time consuming, a pain and isn’t easy. I have trouble with it.
But it gives the best results.

Bottom line, what I do is look for reflections before hitting the button. I have given up very nice angles and what seems a perfect vantage point because it would be too much work post shot.

I’m happy to help with what I can and have offered to bring my MacBook and show you. Let me know mate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Hi Dan,

Thanks heaps for the offer mate and I will certainly take you up on it one day very soon.

I would however rather put the time into an image that I take that doesn't require that much work. I need to learn how to asses, compose and then take the images better, that way the post editing is very much reduced.

I appreciate the offer

[tandeejay]

another option, see if you can get there and gain access before all the crowds arrive Then you can get your photos without random people getting in the way

[Mark L]

I think the original photo you have presented with the reflections looks okay here. Without the reflections this photo has no point of interest?

[Snooks]

I think the original photo you have presented with the reflections looks okay here. Without the reflections this photo has no point of interest?

Interesting and I had never even thought of that (lol).

Having seen the amount of reflections, when I looked at starting the editing they just jumped out, I instantly thought that they would be an issue and hence wondered at how to negate them. I didn't wish to spend ages erasing or fixing them.

I only uploaded a screenshot of the reflections, not the whole image. The whole image is as shown here:

screenmonaro.JPG

My initial thoughts were to "cut out" the car and change the whole background.

What is interesting is that I never thought of what you did, I overlooked it immediately. I do believe there is still better photos to invest my efforts into, , but thank you for the comments Mark.