Reflection question?

G

Gary W

Well-known member
All right everyone, I have a question. I just shot a office scene with an FS100 on a steadicam, and
I as well as the script supervisor missed a reflection of the camera in a small window going into another
office, so basically it's in the shot. I do not have the luxury of shooting at this location again for a
re-shoot.

There must be a way I can fix this in after effects. I have never had to fix something like this before
it's a newbie problem, and it's usually caught before it happens, but we were running behind schedule
and needed to get all the shots done by the end of the day.

I would greatly appreciate a solution to this problem, as I am sure I am not the only one who's had to
deal with something like this before. Thanks in advance Gary
 
I do a lot of After Effects and if it's on a steadycam, it's much more difficult to fix.

Here's one way of doing it and probably the first thing I would try.

1) Duplicate the .mov so you have 2 layers of the same movie.
2) On the TOP layer, Mask the area next to where the camera reflection is in the shot. Probably a small-ish mask. This masked area can NOT have the camera reflection in it, but will probably be part of the window since it's the area next to the camera.
3) Add a feather to the Mask to soften the edge.
4) MOVE the top layer (now masked and without the camera in it) ON TOP OF where the camera is. The top layer that is clear of the camera will move and have the same motion charactertistics of where the reflection of the camera is in the shot.

Basically, you are taking the area next to camera reflection and overlaying it on top of the reflection.

That's where I would start. You will have to probably do a lot of finessing to make it look good. Post shots like this SUCK to do, but it's do-able with a bit of patients.

Hopefully is was a quick shot.
 
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You'd be surprised at what you can get away with when people aren't looking for or at something. I've had to remove the occasional AD from shot, i think if *they* can't see the camera they think the camera can't see them (okay, unfair and a young AD).

The rotopaint options can also help, very much depends what you have to work with around the problem area.

cheers
paul
 
If you post a frame that shows the reflection you'll get more specific advice. There are a huge number of ways to paint out reflections depending on size and length of time in frame. For example it may be possible to just find a frame with no reflection crop out the whole window then corner pin this over the window for the whole the whole shot.

Post a frame and describe the camera motion and how long the reflection is in frame.
 
I will try to get a frame up in the next day or two as I am still working on this project.
I will say that the reflection as far as I remember was in the scene for about a second
and a half. I will take another look, but I don't remember there being a moment
where it was not in the scene.

I was also thinking that since the reflection is not to strong that when I color grade the
scene, I might be able to crop the window and lighten the scene up a bit which in turn might
lighten the reflection up enough to where it's not noticeable.

Again I will post a clip as soon as I can to better show the problem. Thanks everyone for
all the input.
 
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