Blackmagic Forum

I filmed an interview with a woman and I can see reflections in her glasses from a window behind us. Stupid oversight as I had many things I was dealing with during the interview (one-man band). Is there any way I can remove or reduce these reflections? I'll probably sprinkle her interview throughout the promo video ... so we'll likely see her for 15-20 seconds in total.

Thank you in advance.

Track it, and some subtle CC to minimize the effect?

Maybe someone else has a better workflow?

Does it really matter?

Glasses do reflect light in the normal world so it will simply add verisimilitude to your film.

People do have facial blemishes etc. and airbrushing everything leads to unrealistic images . . . anyway, must dash now as I have to put my makeup on.

She looks perfectly fine.

Reflections look normal, nothing to worry about. Trying to fix it will just waste your time. Audiences won't notice.

I'm also thinking it's not worth the effort (and skeptical it can be done at all).

It is 100% possible to completely remove the reflection, but it is time consuming and not worth it in your case as I see the reflection in your shot very acceptable and not distracting at all.

Thank you all. You've made me think that perhaps I am overthinking it. At least now if the client says anything I have some backup from other professionals

Xocomil wrote:Thank you all. You've made me think that perhaps I am overthinking it. At least now if the client says anything I have some backup from other professionals

In my 40+ years of media production I learned that clients will only respect you if you give solid advice and don't do all the silly requests they ask for. YOU are the expert... not THEM! That's why they employ you! Clients often worry about really insignificant things. Also tell them how many hours & dollars it will cost and they generally will realise they are being pedantic about silly details that don't matter.

INBRO-VIDEO wrote:Does it really matter? Glasses do reflect light in the normal world so it will simply add verisimilitude to your film.

We've advised clients of the same thing in the past.

This is one of those things where if they had really been concerned about it, they would have had to black out everything on set, lit from special angles where the glasses reflections wouldn't be visible, and even gone to the trouble of having everybody on set wear all black (including hoods). I have seen sets that had to do this kind of thing before, and it's neither cheap nor easy.

For somebody being interviewed, I'd say live with it.

Peter Cave wrote:In my 40+ years of media production I learned that clients will only respect you if you give solid advice and don't do all the silly requests they ask for. YOU are the expert... not THEM! That's why they employ you! Clients often worry about really insignificant things. Also tell them how many hours & dollars it will cost and they generally will realise they are being pedantic about silly details that don't matter.

Same thing here. Sometimes, what happens is my client is the filmmaker, and their client is the person on camera, who is extremely insecure and self-aware about really insignificant things. One maddening issue that I've seen come up is makeup issues, and months after the shoot, now that they're all finished with editing and we're doing final color, suddenly they start seeing blemishes and inconsistent skintones and other problems that could have been solved in 10 minutes with a decent makeup person. Digital makeup is possible, but it's not something I think we can do easily in Resolve.