ngrea wrote:
I’m volunteer in a nursing home and am currently doing portraits of the residents, who will then decorate frames to have them to give to family as Christmas presents.
One resident always wears glasses with dark brown bifocal lenses. I have little trouble dealing with reflections on clear lenses, but the dark lenses are giving me problems. The resident isn’t able to follow directions on how to tilt her head or change her pose, and I’m not sure if I can get her to pose again, so I need to take care of it in editing. If I clone or airbrush enough to remove the reflection, the lens looks solid, rather than semi-transparent. Does anyone have suggestions? The best I’ve been able to do is tone down the reflection so it is less noticeable.
Per HIPPA (healthcare privacy) regulations I can’t post any example.
Any ideas will be appreciated!
I’m volunteer in a nursing home and am currently d... (
show quote)
The examples I've seen of using editing to "fix" reflections are not very satisfactory, IMHO.
You might have better luck, but generally, one has to re-shoot -- especially if you are planning
to make a largish print.
You could try a circular polarizer filter on your lens--if you haven't already.
You didn't mention the lighting, but flash often creates problems with reflection, especially
if it's mounted on-camera. If you can get enough lighting in the room to shoot by
ambient light, changes are it will look better than flash.
For indoor ambient light photography, using a fast lens (wide maximum aperture) often
can prevent having to turn up the ISO too much (which creates noise in the image).
Unfortuantely, portraits require fairly long lenses: standing 50 to 70 mm, sitting 70 to 105,
head shot 200 to 300 mm. The longer the lens, the slower it will be (all else being equal).
Also, prime (FFD) lenses are always faster than an equivalent zoom. So if its an
interchangable lens camera and you happen to have the right focal length prime lens,
this would be the time to use it.
So one way to get a larger aperture is to shoot more of the subject, which allows you to
use a shorter lens (or shorter focal setting on a zoom): standing rather than sitting,
or sitting rather than a head shot.
If you do have to turn up the ISO, noise (white speckles) can often be touched up easier than
highlights can and with a more natural-looking result. Dark noise in highlights is probably
better left as is.
As for the problem with posing, you may have to find a way to get your sitter's attention:
jangling car keys or whatever. It may help to have an assitant do this, while you shoot
a bunch of shots. You'll just have to use the best one you can get. If all else faies, you
can turn the sitter by moving the chair or wheelchair. It might take more then one
session.
Others may disagree, but in my view, time is better spent shooting than retouching
(to make an analogy: adjusting the toaster rather then scraping the burned toast over
the sink). Sorry--I know this means extra work--but your project is worthwhile and
you'll learn a lot about the art of portraiture.
Please don't become discouraged--in the end, you'll get something really nice. Good luck!