belle44 Loc: Maine

This is a shot of my daughter...I know I should have thought about it BEFORE I took the pic, but alas, I did not and shot her with a mirror behind her. I love the shot of her, but all the stuff that is reflected in the mirror behind her is ugly. That is clearly an advanced editing move for me, and I was wondering if there was anybody out there that might help me out?

I have Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, but I haven't done too much in there. Is there a way to "paint" the mirror so it looks like all mirror and remove the reflected junk? Or do I just chalk this one up to a learning experience?

Any and all help and suggestions are appreciated and welcomed. Thank you!

hlmichel Loc: New Hope, Minnesota

I would use the clone tool to grab a clean piece of the mirror and replace the clutter. You may have to do some masking first, though.

belle44 Loc: Maine

Thank you hlmichel. I will give it a shot, appreciate the help!

phoneguy55 Loc: upstate NY

belle... lots of options, like cloning for sure. Also just "burning" the background to darken it up, ....depending how much you wanted to change the actual pictures total background, you could move part of the frame over to the right, and sort of try to balance the shot out. Even blurring the background some would help accent the subject better. I tried a few different ideas, but won't post my attempt unless you would like to see it.

belle44 Loc: Maine

Thanks phoneguy! Yes, please do share, appreciate it. I will also try your suggestions for practice - it's just all so overwhelming when I get into the software. :shock:

phoneguy55 Loc: upstate NY

just some different ideas.....

belle44 Loc: Maine

[quote=phoneguy55]just some different ideas.....

Wow, that's good. Thank you for your time and for helping me out, truly appreciated.

rballard29 Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I had good luck removing the mirror reflection completely but leaving the mirror frame and the daughter and cat in place. Now another section of a any photo could be inserted into the empty place where the mirror glass was that would now be the reflection in the mirror. Not sure if I am clearly explaining my thought.

rballard29 Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I used a reflection of a draped window on the wall in front of the daughter to give you an idea of what I meant above.

belle44 Loc: Maine

rballard - that looks great too! Thank you, I like it!

This was my first post/request for help, thank you for assisting. I knew I joined this site for a reason, truly appreciated.

prestonphoto Loc: Bath, NY

My turn to give it a try............

cropped and picnik orton used

belle44 Loc: Maine

My turn to give it a try............

presetonphoto - thank you! I like it!! You made her and the cat look better too, lol.

prestonphoto Loc: Bath, NY

She's a pretty girl with a cute cat so.......made her and the cat more focused in the picture too. Who cares about that rule of thirds??? hahahha

belle44 Loc: Maine

preston photo - Thank you! Luckily she doesn't mind "posing" for me....constantly....as I try out new things with my camera. :-D

Now I am having other frustrations. Don't suppose you know why, all of a sudden when I crop a photo it doesn't "grow" and zoom in so to speak? Used to be, when I cropped a photo, the portion of the image that I was keeping became larger, or filled the frame, not sure how to explain, but almost like I was zooming in. Now, when I crop, I end up with a little tiny picture like a thumbnail?

I have changed so much in my camera while playing and experimenting with it that I have no idea what changed to make it suddenly do this. I tried googling it but nothing appears that seems right. Any ideas?

prestonphoto Loc: Bath, NY

Hmmmm - well, aaaahhhh.......I don't know what type/kind of camera you have, I have a Canon Rebel XTi 400D and only know what to do with that but let's try 2 things.

One - I don't think your camera settings have anything to do with it but just in case......go into your menu and find the reset option and click it - it changes your settings back to the original settings it had when you got the camera.

Two - I have a Windows 7 computer, in the pictures option if you have your pictures there, enlarge the picture you want to crop. Go to and open the "edit, organize and share" menu on the upper left. It opens another window, find the crop option and size the photo how you want it, then click crop. It should crop the photo and zoom, or enlarge, the cropped photo.

Beyond what I just told you I would be as lost as you are and have to look for help. Oh - I forgot - you could back date your computer a couple weeks or a month and see if that solves the problem but if you do that save anything you want to keep on disc. if you don't you might lose it.

I hope that what I've told you helps. I know how frustrated you can get with something like that. grrrrrrr