Hi
I recently did a wedding and had to take a few shots in the rain. Time was in short supply and things were running late already so i did some shots in the pouring rain.

Problem is that the rain looks pretty bad on the Guys suits and i don't fancy trying to clone out hundreds of rain marks.

Anyone know of an effective and efficient way to do this with cs4 or any other filter/plugin?

If you posted an example, it would be easier to be more specific. But, you might try a dust and scratches filter layer and just apply it to the suits with a mask. Much faster than cloning.

Another possibility, apply a high pass filter sharpening layer (if you don't know how, ask), but invert the layer this will diminish things like droplets quickly. Instead of sharpening this approach will remove detail. Only apply where you want to remove detail.

Another approach would be to create a multiply layer and pick a color just slightly lighter than the suits, but much darker than the rain drops. Then just brush the color on the layer. It should only remove the rain drops with the color. I would try this option first.

Thanks for the reply UCSB.

Not sure about posting an example at present because the B&G have not seen any images yet. I would like to try the high pass filter and mask you refer to, first.

could you be of futher assistance and tell me how to apply/create a high pass filter?

thanks once again for the help

High pass filter:

1. Make a copy of the image on it's own layer.
2. Set blend mode to Overlay.
2. Filters > Other > High Pass.
3. Set to 2 to 3 pixels or what works for this problem.
4. Things will appear sharper.
5. Apply filter.
6. Invert layer.
7. All items that were sharper will be less visible and then just apply a mask.

I really think option 3 above, should allow you to quickly paint out the rain drops. If you posted a small area of an image (no B&G), something else might work also.

Thanks UCSB I really appreciate your comments and suggestions on this.

I will try the filter and if all else fails i will post a sample of the image and let the PS god (you) have a go.

In option #3 above, just create a new blank layer, set blend mode to multiply. Select your bush tool. Select a color that is just a little (very little) bit lighter than the suits. Just paint in on. It will only replace the rain drops.

UCSB wrote:
In option #3 above, just create a new blank layer, set blend mode to multiply. Select your bush tool. Select a color that is just a little (very little) bit lighter than the suits. Just paint in on. It will only replace the rain drops.

Dude, this, more than any other of your recent posts, has convinced me I should be looking seriously at the lynda.com tutorials!

Dude, this, more than any other of your recent posts, has convinced me I should be looking seriously at the lynda.com tutorials!
+1

I tried the methods you suggested but seam to have failed on each of them.
1. dust filter did not work, but i might have been doing it wrong.
2. I could not figure out how to invert the filter layer.
3. as soon as i choose multiply all the suits go jet black and i cant see the rain anymore?

I posted a sample element which you can download and hopfully apply tour magic in such a way that you can save it as a psd file so that i can copy the layers onto a full size image and then just modify any masks as needed.




here

OK ... now I see what you are trying to fix ... disregard prior approaches.

Here is a simple approach ... give it a try.

1. Create a new blank layer above your original image (CTRL N). Leave blend mode on normal.
2. Select your brush tool (b) and set hardness to softest setting.
3. Pick a streak that you want to correct. Press the ALT key to temporarily bring up color sampler. Sample a color next to streak that is representative of what you want the streak to look like. Release ALT.
4. Paint over streak.

I don't know if you will find this faster than cloning/healing the entire image. I'll try to come up with something faster, but just wanted to give you something to try that will work and might be easier than cloning. The problem with an automated approach is that there are areas of the coat where the highlights are the same color/luminosity range as the raindrops.

There are a few ways to speed this up. One approach would be to create a new layer above the base layer. You can use the move tool to move this layer a small amount (say 10 pixels). Then place an inverted mask on the layer (when you click on the mask icon, have ALT pressed). SET YOUR LAYER BLEND MODE TO DARKEN. Then just paint with white (with the mask selected) to revel the shifted pixels (if you make a mistake, just press x to switch to black and correct, then switch back to white). This will allow you to quickly correct all narrow streaks.

You might experiment with blurring the underlying layer (but, get rid of white and other colors in the image because they will blur into the suits). This will give you a less accurate, but very quick base layer to paint in corrections.

This is probably about as fast an option as I can think of:

Slightly more difficult, but should get you good results. Copy you base layer (CTRL J) to a new layer. Select move tool and use arrow keys to move your image over enough pixels so the small streaks do not line up. Make sure the new layer is active. Go to Image > Apply Image. In the layer field, select your base layer. In the blend field, select darken. This should create a merged image where most of the streaks have disappeared (you can touch up any remaining problems with your paint brush/clone). Click OK and then create a inverted mask on this layer. SET THIS LAYER BLEND MODE TO DARKEN. Now with your mask selected, use the bush with white paint to simply paint over the streaks.

Here is what you get just brushing over the streaks quickly.

Thanks once again for all your help and suggestions with this UCSB.

I will have another go using the methods you outlined and see how it goes.

Try the last one first ... it is amazingly fast.

Hi
I managed the first bit and does get rid of 90% of the problems.
how do i do this.....create a inverted mask on this layer. SET THIS LAYER BLEND MODE TO DARKEN. Now with your mask selected, use the bush with white paint to simply paint over the streaks.

you make it sound so easy

Click directly on the mask thumbnail to select it then press CTRL+ I to Invert the mask.



torque22 wrote:
Hi
I managed the first bit and does get rid of 90% of the problems.
how do i do this.....create a inverted mask on this layer. SET THIS LAYER BLEND MODE TO DARKEN. Now with your mask selected, use the bush with white paint to simply paint over the streaks.

you make it sound so easy

Two ways to create an inverted mask on a layer:

1. As James says, create a normal mask by clicking on the mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel. Then select the mask by clicking on it in the layers panel. Then do a CTRL I.
2. Another method is just to press the ALT key when you click on the create mask icon. This will just create the mask with a blacked out background, which is what inverted means.

To select the mask, just click on it in the layers panel. Paint with white on your image (since mask is selected it will be painting on the mask in reality). You should be able to quickly paint out all streaks. Final result should look like above.

Awesome...thank you so much. This works really well