Need Some PS Help - Removing Bright Spot

[TheBigE]

Hello,

I have the following photo I would like to print (likely on Canvas) (Link to full photo - here)



The Highlights in some of the areas take away from the image a bit IMO. I think the ones on the back wall are okay but the one that is really troubling me is the one near the CAT logo. This is basically a reflection from an exterior light...I wish I would have noticed it earlier (ie. as I was capturing the photo).

What is best way using PS to clean this up a bit? I am familiar with most basic PS and some advanced techniques such as Luminosity Mask, Dodging and Burning (already done on this photo) and so forth. I have played around a bit with both, but nothing has been very successful.

Any thoughts or directions would be helpful just to try and avoid several attempts at trial an error.

Thanks
Erik

[Shadowman]

You could try cloning it out, there are others on the yellow pole that are a bit distracting as well.

[John 2]

Not an easy one Erik. In my limited experience, this is one of the most difficult situations to correct, There is no quick fix. My approach would be to resort to the paint brush:

1. Make a large(- ish) selection of the area but be careful not to overlap the shadow that runs above the lettering.
2. Pick up a mid tone green (Dropper tool or Alt left / click). I used the hue towards the top right of the green area.
3. Switch to the Paint brush tool and do some decorating.
4. I will be an obvious fudge but you can smooth out the painted in area by carefully selecting it (or appropriate smaller areas) and applying the Median filter (Filters/Noise/Median).
5. After that , it's a question of cleaning up with the clone tool.

The areas on the back wall will burn in if you select "Highlights" for the Burn tool but set the Exposure to a low value. Don't try and do it all in one pass.

Doing all of the above on a separate layer (I haven't in this case) gives you more control because you can cut through to the original to recover edges etc.

It's probably best to correct a copy of the full size image rather than the smaller version.

The best I could manage was something like:

[Shadowman]

John,
That's not too bad although on my monitor the brush strokes are visible.

[John 2]

A bit quick and dirty John and I would normally have used a separate layer. The Median filter tends to distort edges and so I haven't applied it fully here. That wouldn't happen of course if I had applied in to a separate layer of the selected area.

[Manfred M]

+1 to John's comments - the only way to truly fix this is in the capture by flagging the light falling on the compressor cover. Unfortunately, industrial lighting is not light that is particularly good for photography.

At this point I would do what he did, although I would use a slightly different technique. I'd mask off the areas where I don't want to add colours too and use a large, very soft brush set to a 5% flow, 100% opacity and repeatedly paint over the area to build up the colour from a sample.

If you look carefully, the colour is patchy due to the light, so you don't want something too even as that would make the whole shot look strange.

[Mike Buckley]

the only way to truly fix this is in the capture by flagging the light falling on the compressor cover.

I would be willing to bet that using a polarizer would have eliminated the glare.

[Manfred M]

I would be willing to bet that using a polarizer would have eliminated the glare.

Maybe and maybe not. I started to write about polarizers and then took them out of my response.

The problem with many of these industrial finishes is that they often use a "safety paint" that contains reflective metal particles. If the logo is painted on, this might be the case. The other common approach for logos is the use of decals and these are often printed on aluminumized reflective plastic substrates, so these have the same issue. Polarizers do not work in controlling the reflections off metallic surfaces.

The only way to know for sure is to have a polarizer in the camera bag and try it.

[TheBigE]

I had a polarizer in my bag, but honestly did not think about getting it out. I was shooting HH already at ISO 3200 so I am not sure I would have been able to manage the 2 stops loss in Shutter Speed. Really needed a Tripod. As it was I was braced up against a wall for this shot.

I will try the recommendations above and see how it comes out...thanks

[rpcrowe]

Probably, the easiest way to eliminate the flare is to crop it out. I then used NIK Viveza to balance out the brightness of the background machinery a bit...

[pnodrog]

Here is how I have done similar jobs using Photoshop CS6 but Elements and other editors should have equivalent methods.

1. Select green area with colour wand set to about 50 and contiguous. Hold shift key down if you need to add to the selection and make sure the highlighted/sheen area is totally included.

2. Create new layer making sure it has the layer mask.

3. Set foreground colour to light green sampled from lower left.

4. Set background colour to dark green sampled from upper right.

5. Reselect and then use gradient fill to get a reasonable match to original. (make sure you are on the new layer)

6, Set layer blend mode to darken.

7. Reduce layer transparency until it looks natural.

[Manfred M]

Here is how I have done similar jobs using Photoshop CS6 but Elements and other editors should have equivalent methods.

1. Select green area with colour wand set to about 50 and contiguous. Hold shift key down if you need to add to the selection and make sure the highlighted/sheen area is totally included.

2. Create new layer making sure it has the layer mask.

3. Set foreground colour to light green sampled from lower left.

4. Set background colour to dark green sampled from upper right.

5. Reselect and then use gradient fill to get a reasonable match to original. (make sure you are on the new layer)

6, Set layer blend mode to darken.

7. Reduce layer transparency until it looks natural.

Sometimes adding a bit of monochrome noise using a Gaussian distribution helps give the area a more natural look too.