Removing Lens Dust Flares?

[selfmade64856]

Hello All,

From time to time I come across some dust flares on my panoramas. For the most part they're fairly easy to Photoshop out, however every now and then they are on a particularly difficult area of the image. If I take an hour or two then I can get them out.....pixel by pixel.......but that just sucks

Below is an example of a dust flare that (for me anyway) is rather difficult to quickly remove:



Does anyone have any suggestions on how to easily remove flares like these? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

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[Garbz]

That's not dust. Dust is black.

Flares are a function of the lens. Do you shoot with a lenshood? Also do you shoot with a UV filter? Remove filters if flaring is a problem.

I use the clone brush in photoshop to remove such blemishes. Many programs should have quite capable spot removal tools.

[selfmade64856]

Do you shoot with a lenshood? Also do you shoot with a UV filter? Remove filters if flaring is a problem.

I shoot with an 8mm Samyang Fisheye lens with a petaled hood and no filter:


The clone brush is good, but not in this scenario because it's tough to keep the clone selection in the right spot while cloning. I was thinking that there has to be a way to adjust the colors to match............hmm...had a thought.

So I tried something that just came to mind and it worked enough to pass. I basically created a pattern stamp from a small part of the image, selected the offending area and then recreated the area with the pattern stamp, then blurred the selected area a little to blend it. It's not perfect but worked well enough. Thanks for the suggestion.

[480sparky]

Select the purple area, and work with the colors to get it close to the background.

You can also Duplicate the image, then rotate/resize the duplicate so you can clone from it to the original.

[MReid]

Clone tool takes 2 seconds.
For this one, sharp edge brush, normal setting, 100 percent, size the brush so your grab is big enough to cover the blue area.
Grab the section immediately adjacent and carefully just move that section over to cover the blue area.
If you are careful and line it up properly...done.

For general random bright flares you can use the clone tool soft brush, darken setting, 30 percent. Then grab a darker area that is the color you want there instead of the flare and click it in there until you reach the desired amount of the flare gone.

For some extreme situations with a lot of foggy area this won't work...but for nice clean flare spots it is good.

[DiskoJoe]

Do you shoot with a lenshood? Also do you shoot with a UV filter? Remove filters if flaring is a problem.

I shoot with an 8mm Samyang Fisheye lens with a petaled hood and no filter:


The clone brush is good, but not in this scenario because it's tough to keep the clone selection in the right spot while cloning. I was thinking that there has to be a way to adjust the colors to match............hmm...had a thought.

So I tried something that just came to mind and it worked enough to pass. I basically created a pattern stamp from a small part of the image, selected the offending area and then recreated the area with the pattern stamp, then blurred the selected area a little to blend it. It's not perfect but worked well enough. Thanks for the suggestion.

This is just going to do that. You have to watch your angles. This would be hard to clone these out with the roof detail.

[KmH]

You can also select the 2 areas and do a Curves adjustment in each of the individual color channels:

Quick and dirty

[MReid]

you may be able to do that with just clone, darken...give it a try.

[KmH]

There are many ways to approach the issue. That is why Photoshop is so powerful.