Can Reflections Be Removed

[rckowal]

The subject is my question.

I shot some video footage from inside of a railroad car through a glass window. In some scenes, objects inside the car are being reflected back from the window to the camcorder. Unlike a mirror, they are faint - more like a ghost image.

Is it possible to remove such reflections using video filters in VS 11.5 Plus - they appear to be the same as the ones in Pro X2.

[Black Lab]

I don't see how they could.

[Ken Berry]

You could, I guess, play around with a filter which will alter the contrast and thus 'white out' the reflections. But of course, that would affect the rest of the clip, including the view outside the window.

[rckowal]

Thanks fellows,

I think you're right Ken. Decreasing contrast will probably look worse than the reflections. But, out of curiosity, I'll give that a try.

[mitchell65]

You could always cut the clip at the start of the reflections then cut again at the end and just apply a selection of filters to the "Reflections" part of the clip (Now a seperate clip of course) This way the rest of the clip will be unaffected. Try the levels filter by the way. I used that when I get the chance to film from a light aircraft through a perspex window. Not perfect but not bad.

[sjj1805]

It all depends upon the individual clip, what will work with one clip might not be suitable for another and so you need to look at each one and tackle the particular clip individually.

Sometimes you can mask the affected area by using a picture in picture effect and placing something else above it.
Sometimes you can alter the brightness/contrast, even dump the colour and watch in mono.

I have even (with SHORT sequences) exported the affected part to a Image Sequence File then tidied it up with an image editor using tools like
Clone
Healing brush
Touch up tool
etc.

On another occaision you might spot a frame within the clip that there is little or no reflection, here you could replace the clip with a "freeze frame"

Like I said at the start, no two clips will be the same.

[rckowal]

John & Steve, Thanks for the ideas. I'll try them as the need arises.

In the meantime, I can see that it will not detract much from my movie if I just cut out small portions of the most offensive clips. Reflections in the balance of the clips will be rather minor.

Besides, many reflections are common in the "real world" - like those from pools of still water, lens flare, the sun, etc. Viewers may not even notice them as editing imperfections??

[Ken Berry]

Well, in point of fact, they are *not* editing imperfections. They are perfect "reflections" of a scene as viewed by the human eye... and by the camera. So unless you were really wanting to focus on an outside scene which is severely blocked by the reflections, I would leave them as they are. Hopefully, though, there is not minute after minute of the same scene, regardless of whether the video is for rail enthusiasts (and I have one in the family!) As they say in video editing, as elsewhere, less is often more!

I recently had a similar thing happen as I filmed my arrival in Toledo (the Spanish one!) through a bus window. Got a reflection (of me filming!!), but if anything it added to the sense of arrival as you could still see the profile of the city growing through the window. It was also helped by the fact that the bus driver kindly stopped regularly, so we could film much the same scenes from outside the bus. Thus the 'reflection' clips (short) could be segued into an unimpeded view. If I say so myself, the overall effect was good.

However, I readily acknowledge that unless you have the opportunity to go back to the scenes outside a moving train to film those views unimpeded, you won't be able to use the same procedure.