Enhance an image reflected on a window,

[Eldoradocaddy]

The image was taken by a friend as he was passing a business. I want to enhance everything on the outside of the window, and make everything on the other side of the window, less dominant. 

[Fotomaker01RA]

Just to clarify - you want to make anything in the foreground of the shot blurred & only have everything that's reflected in the glass sharp. Is that correct?

Here are some options - after straightening the photo....

Select the part of the image you want to blur, create a mask from it (Add Layer Mask icon, bottom of Layers Panel), add Gaussian Blur to taste (I used a Field Blur in my ex. attached... but use whatever Blur you like - Gaussian, Box, Surface, Field).

I also did a variant where I selected the partial arm of the selfie-taker then did an Edit > Content Aware Fill on that selected area to get rid of it altogether and have a disembodied reflection.

I also reduced the exposure on the foreground a bit to draw more attn to the window glass and brightened the window up a bit and added some contrast. Again, so the attn goes to the sharper, brighter parts of the image. If you do the content aware fill and this last part of adjusting vibrance, contrast, exposure you may not even need much or any blur...

Have fun!

Bricks under window blurryBricks under window sharp

[Eldoradocaddy]

Thanks for the reply. What I want is to make the windows like a mirror. So that the image of the man and everything outside that's reflected in the window is all that you see. I don't want to show any of the insides of the business. Do you see how some of the things inside the business are interacting with the images of the things outside, and fading parts of the outside images?

[Fotomaker01RA]

Got it! 

I think that would be a lot trickier to try to fix. Would require a lot of custom retouching ... at minimum sampling colors and painting out areas using the Brush Tool on a low Flow setting. Perhaps combined with using the Spot Healing Brush tool to remove (one-by-one) the lines of the variously toned reflections in the glass. Possibly having to copy and replicate parts of the image to use as "patches" over the unwanted areas.

If you just select the parts of the reflected image you like in the window to make them stand out more (so there's less attn on the in bldg elements that are showing thru from indoors) it will just start looking very unnatural - I think... Maybe someone else who's more clever can tell you another approach. How experienced at Ps are you?

Or have the selfie taker person go back, ask the folks in the Aveda salon to pull down a white blind behind the window & try again for the reflection shot.  😉 Or, ask the people in the salon if it's possible to take a shot from inside the salon looking out to the scene that's reflected from across the street. Overlay that as a layer above the pic you've posted above (both would have to be geometrically corrected in the same way (straightening, etc.) then selectively mask out the parts that are a distraction in the salon and perhaps lower the opacity a bit (or experiement with blend modes).

Good luck! Hope you can figure it out.

[Eldoradocaddy]

Thanks for taking the time, I really do appreciate it.