Shadow through glass

okyou · Post by **okyou** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 10:32 pm

Hello,

Do you know how to remove the faint images reflected on the ground. Thanks.

okyou · Post by **okyou** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 10:37 pm

I tried to use the select/fill tool but it cannot recognize the boundary. Clone tool take too long and the color may not match. Do you know there are any script similar to Rusty's New Dynamic Range Script that can solve this problem.

Joelle · Post by **Joelle** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:27 pm

If that was my image, I would select sections and use the the Paint Brush on low opacity : clone the colour of the area next to the window reflections and then dab-dab-dab (no dragging ☺) over the light bits. doing it section by section works, but it's a lot of work. No script will correct that.

Joëlle

Post by **Jean-Luc** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 10:56 pm

okyou wrote:Hello,

Do you know how to remove the faint images reflected on the ground.

Not only on the sunny ground but also in the shadow under the plane and between the plane and the right car.
Also in the ROYCE panel.
To avoid those reflections, place the camera against the window pane.

Try with the Clone tool at lower Opacity. It will take one hour to do it, IMHO.

ehume · Post by **ehume** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:27 pm

There are some cameras with through-the-window functionality. Best bet is to use that, if you have it. This might be a difficult fix.

Post by **Jean-Luc** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:53 pm

ehume wrote:There are some cameras with through-the-window functionality. Best bet is to use that, if you have it. This might be a difficult fix.

Undesired reflections may also be avoided with a polarized lens filter.

Post by **hartpaul** » Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:58 pm

Yes a polarising filter on your camera may help, also a lens hood (rubber) so you can place the lens up against the window glass to avoid any interior reflections.
Otherwise as already mentioned you will need to spend a lot of time doing small clones to try and remove those reflections and yet not have a final result that is satisfactory.
The question then becomes , 'Is the image important enough to have to spend over 30 minutes to correct?'

ehume · Post by **ehume** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:34 am

I mentioned the through-the-window focusing mode because my 2011-era fixed lens camera has that function. I figure anyone with a modern camera will certainly have that function. It may be hiding in the menus, though. The other suggestions (using a polarizing filter, using a rubber lens hood) are things we did back in the film days.

Post by **hartpaul** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:34 am

ehume wrote:I mentioned the through-the-window focusing mode because my 2011-era fixed lens camera has that function. I figure anyone with a modern camera will certainly have that function.

I am interested ,what is this function? What camera has it? What is the proper name for it and do you have a link on the web for that function. Or is it just a built in polarising filter?

ehume · Post by **ehume** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 2:15 am

hartpaul wrote:
ehume wrote:I mentioned the through-the-window focusing mode because my 2011-era fixed lens camera has that function. I figure anyone with a modern camera will certainly have that function.
I am interested ,what is this function? What camera has it? What is the proper name for it and do you have a link on the web for that function. Or is it just a built in polarising filter?

The camera is a Panasonic DMC-LX7. The function can be reached via the top dial, under SCN. On the preview screen, it says "Scene Mode" and you get to pick your mode. Panasonic calls it "Glass through." The DMC-LF1, from about a year later, has the same top dial, with the same SCN on it. It shares the "Glass Through" function.

Apparently another way to capture something far off is to focus manually.

Edit: apparently the Panasonic FZ200 has this as well: link.

Post by **hartpaul** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 4:53 am

From what I see here it seems to be form of selective focus and does not really eliminate a bright reflection in the glass.
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57148892

So it seems to ignore small areas of dirt on a window and not allow the camera to focus on them but on the larger area in the distance behind the glass. ie selective focus which can also be done manually.
There is also a suggestion that it may correct for the tint of the glass as well similar to auto white balance.

In the forum there in another thread a guy shows a series of comparison shots taken out the window of a plane
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51626174

However you will note that there is no brighter reflection from within the cabin that appears in the images.
As a comparison these two shots were taken through the glass of the Q1 building in Surfer's Paradise QLD Australia. I had to place the camera on a tripod so could not press it up against the glass. I had a dark cardigan on that I was able to stand behind the camera and hold out to try and block out the brighter reflections in the glass - unsuccessfully in some parts . But you can see where eliminating the reflections by blocking out the brighter reflections does improve the image.

So the best way to eliminate these reflections is during the taking of the picture. Move the camera to an angle / area where ther are no brighter areas behind the camera that can be reflected in the glass.

bruce1951 · Post by **bruce1951** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 6:52 am

I would suggest some patient use of the clone tool. It is what it is and a great lesson for the future. But sometimes avoiding what you don't see at the time isn't possible!!

ehume · Post by **ehume** » Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:44 pm

It seems to me that hartpaul and bruce1951 have it right. Some cameras seem to autofocus through something similar to echo rangefinding (echolocation in bats) or light rangefinding (e.g.--LIDAR). In the manual for my LX7, there is a picture of a light in the front of the camera used just for this.

JoeB · Post by **JoeB** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:38 pm

IMHO, the clone tool is not the best tool for this particular picture - or any image where there is a lot of stuff needing removal. The Magic Fill is the better tool for such images. As the OP said, the Magic Fill doesn't respect the "boundaries", by which I'm sure he means that it picks some fill from areas that are not the same color and texture as the area he selects to be filled.

To make the Magic Fill respect boundaries you have to set the boundaries. And the way to do that is to use your selection tools to select a portion of the image that contains both of just the background that you want to be used as fill and the part of the image you want to have removed/covered by the fill. Then promote that selection to a layer and then select (on that layer) the object you want removed and then invoke Magic Fill. It can still take some time depending on the amount of available background in relation to the size of the object within that background that you want removed as well as how much reflection is in the entire image, but my experience is that for large cleanup work it works much better - and faster - than the clone tool.

Image 01 just shows the area of the image I decided to work on first.

Image 02 shows how I used Point to Point to select an area that includes both the stuff I want to use as the fill and also contains some reflection that I want filled in. Note that I made sure to exclude the black cracks between the sections of concrete as well as the black shadow beneath the orange strip, so I only have fill material and unwanted material. Do not use any anti-alias or feather. I then promoted this selection to a layer.

Image 03 shows my rough selection (made on the promoted layer) of the reflection that I want to fill with the rest of the material.

Image 04 shows the result of invoking Magic Fill.

All that is left is perhaps just a little touchup near the top right of the promoted selection if necessary.

This method can be repeated for all areas that are large and have a good amount of wanted fill material plus some unwanted material that is to be replaced with the fill. Any touchup is then minor and confined to areas that are not very large and can be fixed with either more Magic Fill or the clone tool.

This didn't take much time at all, and cleaning up the whole image like this certainly wouldn't take anywhere near an hour as has been suggested using the Clone tool.

As to the reflection on the orange stripe at the top right, I imagine that could easily be covered by simply selecting a section of the orange stripe and the black shadow below it immediately to the left of that area, copying it, pasting as new layer, then moving it over top of the part that shows the reflection. It might require a bit of rotation to fit exactly.