Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
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 desperately 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 absolutely simple. If this sounds like a
pain, then you've never spent an hour desperately cloning 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 to wonder what's going on
in Step Two. Okay, here's a photo of our
subject with her glasses 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,
assistant, 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.
Step Two:
Unfortunately, that's not what happened
for my second shot—our subject decided
(maybe 10 minutes later) to remove her
glasses. But, luckily, I had shots in the
same shoot both with and without her
glasses on (of course, that was luck—you
should definitely plan to shoot some with
them on, then some off, during the shoot).
So, I had to look for one where her head
position was somewhat similar. This shot
isn't right on the money, so we'll have
to tweak it a bit to make it work, but
at least we have a shot to work with,
so I'm not complaining.
(Continued)
