Troublesome Sun

[PhotoShootGC]

Hey
I have an major problem with post processing photos with heavy sun!

RAW file Download
https://we.tl/t-Ml1zX7QOhv

(and yes I know my Sensor is quite dirty! just ordered some cleaning kits)

Here is my go at it, although I dont like it, just dont know how to deal with it.

Would love to see some of your work on it

 

[Jim Dockery]

Are you complaining about the flares? My fancy P&S has similar problems, which I've tried to clone out at times, but when it's in the sun rays like this I find it too much trouble for poor results, I'd say the same with this shot. I try to avoid shooting into the sun with that camera.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Ok, first off, flare control starts with the capture. I only attempt direst into the sun images with my best anti flare lens, the Canon 11-24. Then it needs to be off center and stopped down to f16. More often I use the 1/16 rule. That is, I wait until the sun is covered by something so that only 1/16 of it protrudes. I shoot burst mode as the sun is close to this and usually get at least one with very little flare other than the star flare which I want.

For this one, I used the content aware fill to fix the big green spot lower right, and one of those near the sun. Then I grabbed the greenish area lower right and reduced green and increased contrast.

Finally I use Topaz exposure, and Topaz brilliant cool, and faded it to avoid that lower right hand corner.

Here is the result.

 

[JimFox]

Ok, first off, flare control starts with the capture. I only attempt direst into the sun images with my best anti flare lens, the Canon 11-24. Then it needs to be off center and stopped down to f16. More often I use the 1/16 rule. That is, I wait until the sun is covered by something so that only 1/16 of it protrudes. I shoot burst mode as the sun is close to this and usually get at least one with very little flare other than the star flare which I want.

For this one, I used the content aware fill to fix the big green spot lower right, and one of those near the sun. Then I grabbed the greenish area lower right and reduced green and increased contrast.

Finally I use Topaz exposure, and Topaz brilliant cool, and faded it to avoid that lower right hand corner.

Here is the result.

View attachment 14403

Good work with the Content Aware Ben. There is one ray on the right side of the sun that has flare in it, I would correct that one and call it good. Your editing definitely helps this.

 

[Ken Rennie]

My way with dealing with flare is different. Get a new layer set it to color mode, click the select foreground colour square. Click on a colour near the flare mark that you would like the flare to be using a soft brush paint the colour over the flare mark. You may wish to reduce the flow and retouch the colour in several steps sampling different areas so that the new colour is not a monotone. This use of color mode does not change the luminosity of the flare spots but this can be tackled in many other ways which I can outline if you wish. Much/ almost all of the image suffers from veiling flare and that has to be tackled in other ways lots of clarity is a start can it can never be totally removed. I take 2 exposures 1 straight and 1 with my hane covering the sun and blending them together. Ken

 

[Ben Egbert]

My way with dealing with flare is different. Get a new layer set it to color mode, click the select foreground colour square. Click on a colour near the flare mark that you would like the flare to be using a soft brush paint the colour over the flare mark. You may wish to reduce the flow and retouch the colour in several steps sampling different areas so that the new colour is not a monotone. This use of color mode does not change the luminosity of the flare spots but this can be tackled in many other ways which I can outline if you wish. Much/ almost all of the image suffers from veiling flare and that has to be tackled in other ways lots of clarity is a start can it can never be totally removed. I take 2 exposures 1 straight and 1 with my hane covering the sun and blending them together. Ken

Thanks ken, yes, the finger over the sun trick is one I forgot to mention. Your other techniques are interesting when dealing with the veiling flare. This is usually the kiss of death for such images. This is one reason I seldom shoot into a visible sun these days. I have a few sun flare shots and don't need anymore.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Good work with the Content Aware Ben. There is one ray on the right side of the sun that has flare in it, I would correct that one and call it good. Your editing definitely helps this.

I need to look up that post where you walked us through flare repair. I think it was an early Lets Play. I will do this later.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I direct everyone's attention to this post that shows how to avoid flare with the finger trick and how to fix the remaining flare.

https://www.focalworld.com/index.php?threads/lets-play-11-11-2017.1664/

And here is one with more flare removal per Jim's suggestion.