I was going to post a photo of this problem by my luck prevailed and I can't locate the photo. I hope my description works. I took a photo of a WW2 military aircraft a while back and I noticed a lot of glare from sunlight on the aluminum in a couple of areas. What is the best way to tone this glare down or eliminate it if possible? I use a Canon EOS60D, and Photoshop CC. The original was a RAW photo. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
The main point is whether the highlights were blown or not. If they were, you'll have to resort to some very careful cloning (probably at much reduced opacity) just to get some data into the blown areas.
If the highlights aren't blown you'll obviously have to darken them, and the best way to do that is to lead with the Highlights slider (or some equivalent). It sounds like the sort of shot that would benefit from a global highlights reduction, but there'll be a limit to how far you can go with that. Beyond that you'll have to make careful selections of the highlights, and if you can, use feathering to match the rate of fall-off of the glare. Hard-edged selections won't work well with that sort of intense fall-off of light. Once you've made your selections you'll be able to make local adjustments that are less limited than the global ones.
Something I do a lot to selections is to lift the Shadows, lower the Highlights (both to the maximum) then use the Brightness slider as required. With the highlights and shadows subdued, any changes to the overall brightness are more likely to stay unnoticed and blend in more convincingly.
SonyA580
Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer
Possibly, a polarizer filter could have avoided the glare.
SonyA580 wrote:
Possibly, a polarizer filter could have avoided the glare.
Not from metallic objects.
A dark neutral density filter. I use a filter called a "fader" where I can dial in the amount of "shade" I need. It does away with blown out images. The trick is to keep it your camera bag so it will be at hand when you need it. It's not something I keep affixed until I need it.
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