Taking the perfect picture only to return to your computer and finding that a lens flare ruined it is one of life’s minor frustrations. Some simpler forms of lens flares may be eliminated with clever Photoshop work. Still, it’s crucial to note that there needs to be a clear, automated method created to eliminate lens flares from images.

The three fundamental techniques for eliminating items from an image in Photoshop apply equally well to lens flares and any other undesirable elements in your picture. You can use the Content-Aware Fill, Cloning, and Healing tools or simply adjust the hue and saturation.

The approach you decide on will depend on the contents of the image, but you might want to try out a few different approaches to compare the outcomes.

How To Remove Lens Flare In Photoshop

Lens flare may be eliminated via three different methods using Photoshop. In this section, we’ll go through every one of them.

For more information on how to remove lens flare in Photoshop, watch this video below:

Method 1: Content-Aware Fill to Remove Flares

This is the closest thing to an automated means of removing lens flares; however, it only works when the flare is placed on top of a somewhat plain background.

You’ll end up with a fuzzy mess—or perhaps something somewhat nightmare-like—if the backdrop material is very complicated, such as a regular pattern or an inflexible design like a face.

1. The first step in removing a flare using Content-Aware fill is to choose the area surrounding the flare. The Elliptical Marquee tool is the easiest choice for this one because it is round, but you may use any of Photoshop’s selection tools instead.
2. If you have many flares, you may correct them all at once by holding down the Shift key while you make new selections. If you prefer, you can also address each flare separately by repeating these instructions as required.
3. Open the Edit menu after that and choose Content-Aware Fill. The CAF workspace in Photoshop will appear, giving you a glimpse of the outcome and letting you choose which areas of the image will serve as the fill’s source data.

We’d call it a successful outcome given that it only needs a few clicks and no human labor! Although it could look better, it prevents the flare from becoming a visually irritating part of the entire picture.

• Make sure “New Layer” is selected for the Output To option before clicking OK. You may update your patching later if required without having to redo all of your previous modifications since it will display on a new layer on top of the original image.

Method 2: Cloning and Healing to Remove Flares

If the Content-Aware Fill tool doesn’t work, you might want to attempt manually removing lens flare artifacts with the Clone Stamp tool and Healing Brush tool. This can take significantly longer than utilizing CAF, but it can produce superior outcomes in challenging circumstances.

1. Set up a new layer to contain all the cloned pixels, which will serve as a fix to hide your flares. Alternatively, you may utilize the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + N (Ctrl + Shift + N on Windows) or the Layer menu.
2. Click OK after giving your layer a specific title.
3. Utilizing the toolbox or the S shortcut on the keyboard, change to the Clone Stamp tool.
4. Keep in mind the Sample option is switched to Current and Below in the tool settings screen at the top of the program window.
5. Holding down the Option key (Alt on Windows) and clicking the region, choose a good portion of the image to serve as your clone source. Your lens flare artifacts will be hidden by using this region as a patch.
6. Make sure your newly created blank layer is chosen before removing the flare artifacts.

It’s difficult to say whether this is a better outcome than what you can obtain when using the Content-Aware Fill tool, but it will take a lot longer to use

Method 3: Using Adjustment Layers to Remove Color Tints

You might be able to apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to get rid of the color tint if your lens flare appears as an odd color distortion.

1. Open Photoshop and choose your image. From the Layer menu, choose New Adjustment Layer from the submenu, and click Hue/Saturation. Click OK after naming your new layer something useful.
2. Click the color selection dropdown in the Properties panel and pick the color range that matches the color distortion caused by your lens flare.
3. After separating the appropriate color regions, play around with the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders to eliminate any remaining lens flare color.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much all there is to learn about removing lens flares in Photoshop, so make sure to experiment with these techniques to figure out which one suits you best. We hope this tutorial will be helpful if you set out to remove lens flares in Photoshop. Happy editing!