Hot spots in an image

Question

I am editing a group photograph taken outdoors in the shade with a fill flash. Two of my subjects were wearing glasses and they have small but bright reflections from the flash on the rim or lens of the eyeglasses. These are literally just points of light in the photo, but they are distracting.
I've looked at the images at very high magnification and each point is no more than a small cluster of blown-out pixels. I'm not sure which Elements tool to use or what the correct procedure is. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Steve,
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<br />So, how did you get everyone to smile and have their eyes open...at the same time. LOL.
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<br />To get rid of hot pixels, I like to add a blank layer above my image and set it to darken. Next I grab the blur tool and use it over the hot pixels. (Note: Theres a box in the menu bar you need to check to make the tool work on a blank layer.)
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<br />I thought I'd try my hand at your image.
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<a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1SDFbdBjnP5U7aPuop2mBp5ge9k61Z1" /></a>
<img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1SDFbdBjnP5U7aPuop2mBp5ge9k61Z1_thumb.jpg" border="0" />
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<br />I tend to let blend modes do most of my editing for me.
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<br />If interested here's how I did this..
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<br />1. I selected the sky then added a gradient adjustment layer. (Its the Chrome Gradient with reverse checked.) This layer is set to Hue 100% opacity.
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<br />2. I created a blank layer and merged the background and gradient layer then I used Hue/Saturation in the menu bar to desaturate it. This layer is set to Color Burn. I masked off the trees and below. (If you dont use a layer mask add-on, you can either use create a clipping group with an adjustment layer mask and mask that way or grab the eraser and erase the areas you dont want the high contrast appliedand it will be ugly in the lower portion of this image. (This Color Burn layer is set at 100% opacity.)
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<br />3. Next I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. (I checked legacy so that it would be just as it is in ElementsI use Photoshop.) I have masked off the opposite area that I applied the previous adjustmentso its only on the close trees down. (I used 30/40 for the settings.) The layer is Normal 100% Opacity.
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<br />4. The next layer up is a blank layer set to Darken 100% opacity. On this layer, I used the blur tool on all of the hot pixel areas. This works well on all but a set on the blonde ladys face/ear area and on the older ladys glasses. These have a purple hueIll fix those next.
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<br />5. I created a new blank layer and leave it at Normal 100% opacity. I grab the clone stamp and in normal blend mode clone the blonde ladys purple hot pixels away.
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<br />6. I created another new blank layer over the last to fix the purple in the older ladys glasses. This layer is in Normal blend mode but I have lowered the opacity to 54%. I set the clone stamp to Color so I would only change the purple and darkened pixels.
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<br />7. Next I created a new blank layer and merged everything into one layer. Note, I still have my original layers below the mergeIm not flattening. To this layer, I apply USM to sharpen the image. (If you know how to edge mask, I would recommend going that route.) For the purpose of this, I just applied USM to the entire image. This layer is set to Normal 59% because I over sharpened.
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<br />8. I created another blank layer over this and set it to Darken 100% blend mode. I used the blur tool to remove a few artifacts sharpening the image brought out.
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<br />9.Almost done. Now, I create a new blank layer and combine merge everything up to this point. (Did I mention the shortcut to merge a composite layer is control, alt, shift, E.). So, now I have everything combined on this top layer. Looks good but some areas need some blending.
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<br />10. I duplicate my original background layer; then move it up the layer stack until it is directly below my corrected composite layer. Did you guess that Im going to blend using my original. LOL. I look at the slopes of the mountain. Some areas look too dark and the edges too sharp. I apply a mask to my corrected composite image and with a low opacity bush bring back some of the original photo until I reach a happy spot. I also did this with the tree line right above your familys heads. (Remember if you dont have a layer mask add-on, you can use a clipping mask to hijack an adjustment layer mask or use an eraser at low opacity to blend the images.
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<br />11. Hmmm. Clothing has lost its detail in the shadows. To fix this, I duplicated the original and placed it over the corrected composite. I place the oginal layer into Linear dodge and drop the opacity to 20%. I mask out everything then paint in the mask over the areas with clothingavoiding that white coat. Linear Dodge will suck the detail out of that. Okay, better.
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<br />(It looks good at this resolution but the formula might not hold when applied to your full resolution imagein particular I am not so sure how well the desaturated layer set to Color Burn blend step 2 will work when applied to your full resolution image. You might look at skipping the step and working through bumping the contrast using a different blend mode or another brightness contrast layer.) At full resolution you might need to add some noise to that gradient to make it blend into the photo as gradient's tend to be smoother than the surrounding image data. (I'm thinking maybe simplify...rasterize...the gradient layer then add noise to the resulting simplified layer.)
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<br />edit: corrected a typo because I don't think implify is a word. LOL.
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<br />Heres a link to the Elemask tutorial if you opt to hijack an adjustment layer mask.
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<br />http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/elements/elemask.htm
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<br />Heres a link to Grants Tools if you opt for using a layer mask add-on.
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<br />http://www.cavesofice.org/~grant/Challenge/Tools/Files.html
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<br />and you dont need either link if you opt for the eraser. LOL.
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<br />HTH,
<br />Terri