How to Automatically Eliminate Lens Flare in Seconds (VIDEO)
Some photographers intentionally introduce lens fare for creative purposes but most of the time our goal is to eliminate these unintended distractions. Doing so by conventional means can be a very arduous and time-consuming task, but today you’ll learn an effective trick for getting the job done in seconds.
Instructor Greg Benz is a notable pro who got hooked on photography 25 years ago while living in London and says he’s been obsessed ever since. These days he calls Minneapolis home and continues to travel the globe in search of incredible landscape and seascapes. This episode discusses the “painful” task of removing flare with the traditional approach, and then demonstrates how AI can help you banish these image-killing artifacts with a few quick clicks.
Benz pulls up a beautiful seaside shot with great composition, accurate exposure, and ideal sharpness. It seems as though he’s checked all the boxes, so what’s the big problem? Zoom in on the photo and you’ll see that lens flare rears its ugly head in several places throughout the frame. Ouch!
As he says, “if you had to go into each of these problem areas and clone them out by hand (as all of us have done in the past), it would take a ton of time.” He illustrates this by first demonstrating the traditional approach to removing flare caused by shooting into the sun, water spots on the lens, reflections, and other common issues confronted in the field.
Benz achieved a commendable result after an hour of cloning, curves adjustments, blending multiple exposures, and other heavy lifting. But as you’ll see, there’s a much faster and equally effective technique that anyone can master with ease. And that’s what you’ll learn how to accomplish yourself with his quick hack while working in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR).
The process begins by employing Generative AI to banish the offensive flare bubbles. He then moves on to other lens flare issues that are equally easy to resolve by enabling ACR’s new Distraction Removal for Reflections option. Bottom line: “In one click we got rid of a bunch spray, water drops, and other stuff.” The image looks great but it’s admittedly not perfect, and the remaining minor issues are easy to refine by following the simple steps he provides.
After this helpful video concludes pay a visit to Benz’ instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find other great solutions for making your landscape images meet their full potential.
We also recommend watching a tutorial we featured recently with another post-processing specialist who demonstrates how to shift colors in Lightroom and create landscape photographs with a more appealing color palette.
