Help removing lens flare

tomkbucks

tomkbucks

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thomas
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Ive got a lovely image from my 30th birthday in rome that i would like to print but its ruined by a lens flare - my photoshop skills are rubbish (being honest.. ) how do i best get rid of this and improve my image ?

8022997581_888a0ddf60_b.jpg


it was taken with a canon 350d and digital king wide angled filter so i was quite pleased with the results at the time...

all tips or help would be great ! also is this one thats best in b+w or can anyone suggest what would really make it stand out when printed on a large canvas ?
 
I would make a largish selection of the RH window adjacent to it, make that a layer on it's own, resize and position it over the LH window, erase the excess from the layer that is not needed to cover the flare, maybe adjust brightness/contrast on the layer to blend it in, flatten it and then clone out the remaining flare on the dark sky.
 
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A higher res image and a little more time spent on it will yield better results but is this what you had in mind?

trevi_zpsd819d4af.jpg
 
good lord that's clever and looks awesome ! sorry to say my skills on Photoshop are not that amazing .. i aspire to be this good... do you mind saying how you did that in a bit more detail so a muppet like me can follow it ? i want to put this on an a2 canvas as a reminder of the holiday thank you so much :)
 
tomkbucks said:
good lord that's clever and looks awesome ! sorry to say my skills on Photoshop are not that amazing .. i aspire to be this good... do you mind saying how you did that in a bit more detail so a muppet like me can follow it ? i want to put this on an a2 canvas as a reminder of the holiday thank you so much :)
Click to expand...

I will do Tom but it will be a bit later on this evening, I've got to head out now ok. Is it Photoshop you have?
 
yup latest lightroom and photoshop 5, ive invested in the machine/softwere and leneses now... but my skills are quite lacking and i must invest time to learn! My tweaks so far have been using lightroom (with the basics im ok) but as for Photoshop i dont have a clue really and just follow the odd guide on the net - all the gear no idea - but very keen to learn.. ive tried books and stuf and never get on with them..
 
Work at the highest image size you have to get your lines and cloned window area as precise as possible. If you are blowing up to A2 you will need to be precise but it is possible

• Dupilcate your layer and click into it in the layers panel

• Select the lasso tool and feather it at say maybe 10px, if you are using the full hi-res image you might want to go higher than that to stop getting a hard edge

• Using the lasso tool draw around a largish area around the RH window. Enough to cover the flare where it covers the stonework on the LH side at least

• Right click inside the selected area and then choose 'Layer via copy'

• Select the move tool and move the new window layer over the LH window to position it

• If you need to resize it at all then hit Ctrl+T and that allows you to pull the corners etc to size it. If you hold down the shift key when you resize, it will do it proportionately. Once it fits, hit enter. IF you need to adjust use CTRL+T again. You may find it easier to adjust the opacity of the new layer first - go to the layer panel and adjust the opacity down to let you see what is underneath. Once you are happy, make sure and put it back to 100%

• From the menus at the top select layer > layer mask > reveal all

• Reset your default foreground and background colours to black and white by clicking the small b&w box on the tool bar and use the L-shaped arrow beside it to make sure black is on top. Use this to select between black and white

• Select the brush tool and then adjust the size to suit, you use the black color to rub out the bits of the window layer you don't now want, use the white colour to put them back in again if you make a mistake

• The only part of the flare that should still be there is the stuff on black

• Flatten the image - Layer > flatten image

• Select the clone tool and then hold down the alt key and using your mouse select an area of the dark sky adjacent to the flare. Where ever you click this will be the area that is copied to the are in the next stage

Brush over the flare area until it is gone, adjust the tool size and reselect areas to suit
 
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now thats clever - looks like ive got a busy evening thank you so much :)
 
ok had a go - most excellent instructions :) here is my attempt ( prob the 10th attempt! ) , ive set the curves and white balance better - but what i find though is the edge of the window does not look natural when i resize it to the correct size for a2.. its just very blury - does this really matter? any more advice

8024194165_692dadc00d_h.jpg
 
You could try and use a smaller/harder brush when you are painting out the flare, when you get close to the edges.

Alternatively, copy the top of one of the two very large columns, move it over to the black and erase the excess, and then resize and move to the edge of the building.
 
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