Glare reduction

[Bee34]

There used to be a slider that reduced apparent glare in light-color objects and thus brought out detail. How is that done in LR 5?????

[Keith Reeder]

What was this slider called?

[areohbee]

I don't think there is any real good way to do this in Lightroom. I mean, you can use the tools at hand, perferrably applying them locally if you have the time - highlight reduction, colorization, reduced contrast & exposure, etc.

The results will only be as good as the underlying data which may be thin to non-existent in true glare-y regions.

If possible, it's best to reduce glare when shooting - I know: easier said than done...

Photoshop has better tools for this job than Lightroom.

R

[D Fosse]

Rob Cole wrote:

Photoshop has better tools for this job than Lightroom.

Actually, not really (unless you want to go all out and do a full reconstruction). The highlight slider in Lightroom is still the best bang for the buck anywhere, since it has access to the full raw data.

It is possible to eliminate glare completely, at least in a studio situation: Use a polarizer on the lens, and cross-polarize the light source(s). Not much glare will survive that. But even in natural light a single lens polarizer will work wonders and it should always be in the camera bag (not very flattering to skin tones, though...)

[areohbee]

twenty_one wrote:

Rob Cole wrote:

Photoshop has better tools for this job than Lightroom.

Actually, not really...

You wanna fight?

Admittedly, Photoshop can't auto-magically produce real image data from no image data either. That said, I do think Photoshop is a better tool for the job of producing "substitute image data", than Lightroom. I mean, that's kinda what it was designed for, more so than Lightroom anyway... Granted, it requires a fair amount of skill, time, maybe even a plugin or two...

Cheers ,

Rob

[D Fosse]

That's what I said (...unless you want to go all out and do a full reconstruction...) 🙂

[Todd Shaner]

Just clarifying what "used to be" in LR (PV2010) and what "is now" in LR5 (PV2012) for reducing glare, and specifically how to use it. The Highlights slider works "backwards" from the Recovery slider!

Probably should also mention the Radial filter tool is new in LR5 and can also be used to apply additional -Highlights to selective areas for glare reduction.

[areohbee]

twenty_one wrote:

...unless you want to go all out and do a full reconstruction...

I'd say: even if you want to go out a little, and do a partial reconstruction.

For example, even something as simple as filling in a small area of sky that would otherwise be completely blown out - hard to do even this simple "reconstruction" in Lightroom and have it look natural, because it just doesn't have the proper tools for the job. In Photoshop, such "partial" reconstruction could be made to look near-perfect and natural very quickly and easily, if you have the skill to do it anyway, because it has a more appropriate tool-set to do that kind of thing.

So, I'm really agreeing with you - if what you want is a simple slider for highlight recovery..., then yes: Lightroom's is as good as Photoshop's - the same actually. But for *anything* more than that (glare-reduction-wise): Photoshop - no contest.

Rob

[Todd Shaner]

Bee34 wrote:

There used to be a slider that reduced apparent glare in light-color objects and thus brought out detail. How is that done in LR 5?????

The slider you are referring to was called 'Recovery' in PV2010 and now is called Highlights in PV2012. Setting Highlights to negative values recovers detail in areas that have "glare."

You can apply additional Highlights and Exposure to specific areas with glare using the Local Adjustment Brush tool.

[Joe Foe Toe]

Much late reply here for anyone trying to reduce glare.  Lightroom 6 CC (CC only) has a dehaze feature, that when used either on the overall image or as part of a local adjustment, can be very effective toward solving glare problems, assuming the highlights aren't blown out. A good article here, blow up the images to see the difference clearly: https://photofocus.com/2015/12/27/removing-glare-from-eyeglasses-in-lightroom/