Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Fixing Reflections in Glasses
I get more requests for how to fix this problem than probably all the rest combined. The
reason is it's so darn hard to fix. If you're lucky, you get to spend an hour or more des-
perately cloning. In many cases, you're just stuck with it. However, if you're smart, you'll
invest an extra 30 seconds while shooting to take one shot with the glasses off (or ideally,
one “glasses off” shot for each new pose). Do that, and Photoshop will make this fix abso-
lutely simple. If this sounds like a pain, then you've never spent an hour desperately clon-
ing away a reflection.
Step One:
Before we get into this, make sure you read the short intro up top here first, or you're going
towonderwhat'sgoingoninStepTwo.Okay,here'saphotoofoursubjectwithherglasses
on, and you can see the reflection in them (pretty bad on the left side, not quite as bad on
the right, but it definitely needs fixing). The ideal situation is to tell your subject that after
you take the first shot, they need to freeze for just a moment while you (or a friend, assist-
ant, etc.) walk over and remove their glasses (that way they don't change their pose, which
they absolutely will if they take their own glasses off), then take a second shot. That's the
ideal situation.
