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PS help - How to eliminate lens flare artifacts?

jpellowjpellow Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
edited November 11, 2007 in Finishing School
220114740-XL.jpg

I'm looking for some help fixing up this photo.

My Photoshop expertise is pretty much limited to creating basic adjustment layers and layer masks. I've had some success increasing the tonal range, bringing out the highlights in the foreground, and toning down the bright background at the bottom of the image.

I'm looking for help reducing the lens flare artifacts around the brights lights at the top. The star patterns are fine, but I want to get rid of the colored bands and the blueish circles above them. There are also some fainter greenish artifacts about a quarter of the way down from the top.

This is the original, unedited image (displayed at size XL). Original size is here: http://jpellow.smugmug.com/gallery/3811732/1/220114740#220114740-O-LB.
Oh, and I'm using Photoshop 7.

If anyone can suggest some tools and techniques for this, it would be much appreciated!

http://jpellow.smugmug.com

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    jjbongjjbong Registered Users Posts: 244 Major grins
    edited November 11, 2007
    The obvious answer is the clone stamp tool, but that's quite tedious, and it's hard to get it natural looking, especially with a lot of detail in the shot.

    I did something very quickly which goes in the direction you want, although not all the way.

    3647167#220138031-A-LB3647167#220138031-A-LB220138031-M.jpg

    The flare is still there, but the color is gone, so it's less distracting. It may or may not be sufficient for you.

    What I did was go into LAB and use the clone stamp tool on the A and B channels separately to paint over the highlights and shadows that correspond to the lense flare artifacts. This wasn't a precision operation, and it only took a couple of minutes.

    I also tried just painting over the artifacts in the A and B channels with 50% grey, but the result wasn't as good as this one.

    What's going on is that the flare artifacts are not only bright but colorful. This means they're bright in the L channel, and either bright or dark in the A and/or B channels (depending on the color). Everything around them is more neutral. So by using the clone stamp to rework their color, you get the color somewhat close to what's around them. They're still bright, since the L channel hasn't changed.
    John Bongiovanni
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