Any help with lens flare?

[michael ellis]

Does anyone know a relatively easy way to deal with lens flare like in this shot? I have tried a bit in lightroom with the adjustment brush and white balance but was not satisfied with the result. I haven't used photoshop yet, where I could make better masks. It may be easier to just go back and re shoot when the light is not as high. Looking forward to hearing some tips.

Thanks,

Michael

[stamper]

It looks like a relatively simple clone job in PS.

[Ken Bennett]

This is a job for Photoshop. It's pixel-editing, and Lightroom just isn't up to the task.

[michael ellis]

Thanks for replying, Stamper and K Bennett. Making masks to fix the color would be pretty easy in PS. Another thought would be to use LAB color to work on the color. After the color is corrected how would you bring the tones in line with the rest of the picture? A simple exposure correction w/ mask? I use PS a bit but it has been a while and I am always interested in how others do their work.

Michael

[TonyW]

A relatively simple way would be to just loosely mask the area in PS then using a curves adjustment layer to correct as best you can for contrast and for colour (you will get strange colour artefacts at this stage).  Add a blank layer and set blend mode to colour then sample colour from an area outside of flare and just paint over, probably best to use a reduced opacity brush to build up the colour.  Tackling the major flare only this is how I arrived at the result below a one minute fix that I am sure you will improve on with your full size image.  Image should change in a couple of seconds to before and after

[michael ellis]

Tony-

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to line me out on that technique. That really looks like I can make it work.

Sincerely,

Michael