Any way to minimize this sun flare/ haze?

[runnah]

Shoot at night. Or just dump the color and you have a trendy faded BW photo.

 

[Ysarex]

Well that's good to know! Thank you! I have need busy the last few days and didn't get anything done with the picture. I was afraid you would say photoshop joe! I'll say this, I HATE LAYERS! I realize if I took the time to learn them they would be my best friend but I just detest them! I accually have adobe CC so I have access just avoid it like the plague! It might be time to buy a book! I'll do some more learning in to it. Thanks for telling me where to start on a sun flare like this.

I didn't use Layers at all, although Layers can be very useful. I just hand painted in the change using the History brush. You can paint blending modes directly with the History brush. Set the opacity low (15%) and select the blending mode you want (Multiple, Overlay, Soft Light and Screen in your case). Set a large soft brush and each new click of the mouse key is another pass. Switch the photo to Lab mode and in Channels select the Lightness channel if you want to avoid the saturation increase that will come with using the blend modes on and RGB photo.

As for learning Photoshop: I make my living teaching Photoshop to college students. I start the semester by telling my students that I personally don't use Photoshop very much because I'm smart enough not to need it, but that I'll be happy to teach it to them.

We then start with RULE #1: Begin by identifying the error you made that has you trying to fix your photo in Photoshop. Have you made this same mistake in the past? So you think making mistakes and fixing them later is smart?

I'm getting too old for this.

Joe