Any tips for removing lunar flares from a nightscape photo?

Hello,

The problem I've encountered is that a bright moon caused 4 lunar flares (sorry if this is the wrong terminology) in the bottom left of my picture. I'm open to any potential solutions, but to my novice eyes it seems like simply darkening the lines might do the trick. I've tried this but I am not getting the results I'm hoping for, and it might have to do with not using the right layers compounded by my inexperience. (I have Lightroom and Photoshop, so a solution in either is great).

I have browsed videos and these forums and I've seen potential solutions but nothing that I've had success with yet.

Here are the pictures, let me know what you think. And I really appreciate your time and helpful feedback.

Cheers,
Goat

I'd try the content aware healing brush first. It often, but not always, works great.

Outer_Space_Goat wrote in post #19450134
Hello,

The problem I've encountered is that a bright moon caused 4 lunar flares (sorry if this is the wrong terminology) in the bottom left of my picture. I'm open to any potential solutions, but to my novice eyes it seems like simply darkening the lines might do the trick. I've tried this but I am not getting the results I'm hoping for, and it might have to do with not using the right layers compounded by my inexperience. (I have Lightroom and Photoshop, so a solution in either is great).

I have browsed videos and these forums and I've seen potential solutions but nothing that I've had success with yet.

Here are the pictures, let me know what you think. And I really appreciate your time and helpful feedback.

Cheers,
Goat

Hosted photo: posted by Outer_Space_Goat in
./showthread.php?p=194​50134&i=i234897559
forum: RAW, Post Processing & Printing

Hosted photo: posted by Outer_Space_Goat in
./showthread.php?p=194​50134&i=i115041028
forum: RAW, Post Processing & Printing

Could you upload the original RAW file to a sharing service(such as Dropbox, Wetransfer, p-Cloud, etc.) and post the link here so that we can try to solve your problem?

Just guessing at this point, but the lines appear as reflections as the are not just in the sky but also extend across the rock landscape.

Did you shoot thru a window?

bpalermini wrote in post #19450137
I'd try the content aware healing brush first. It often, but not always, works great.

This shows some promise, bpalermini. I was using content aware, intersect with selection, 7 structure, and 0 color and getting decent results. It just seems a little too obvious though, possibly I need to change my lasso selection to make it less noticeable? I changed the furthest flare to the right and these were the results. Maybe if I feathered the border somehow it would be okay?

rrblint wrote in post #19450207
Could you upload the original RAW file to a sharing service(such as Dropbox, Wetransfer, p-Cloud, etc.) and post the link here so that we can try to solve your problem?

Hi rrblint, this is a raw file of the picture I took just before that shows a similar problem (the problem got worse the higher I panned into the sky).

raw nef: https://www.dropbox.co​m …xkuh8ui/TBC_243​4.NEF?dl=0
tif: https://www.dropbox.co​m …5hx9qy/photoedi​t.tif?dl=0
psd: https://www.dropbox.co​m …o8gse6/photoedi​t.psd?dl=0

Naturalist wrote in post #19450210
Just guessing at this point, but the lines appear as reflections as the are not just in the sky but also extend across the rock landscape.

Did you shoot thru a window?

Hey Naturalist, great name! I had a diffusion filter attached to my lens which likely caused the problem. It is useful to blur out minor stars while accentuating the color of bigger stars. I had other pictures that weren't affected but I guess I caught the light from the moon just right (wrong) on this picture.

I would try a soft (feathered) brush on the spot healing brush tool. You can access it by pressing J on your keyboard.

Outer_Space_Goat wrote in post #19450432
Hi rrblint, this is a raw file of the picture I took just before that shows a similar problem (the problem got worse the higher I panned into the sky).

raw nef: https://www.dropbox.co​m …xkuh8ui/TBC_243​4.NEF?dl=0
tif: https://www.dropbox.co​m …5hx9qy/photoedi​t.tif?dl=0
psd: https://www.dropbox.co​m …o8gse6/photoedi​t.psd?dl=0

Thanks, I'll take a look at it.

Definitely content aware brush.

See if this fits your expectations. If so I just used ordinary cloning(very carefully!)

bpalermini wrote in post #19450435
I would try a soft (feathered) brush on the spot healing brush tool. You can access it by pressing J on your keyboard.

This technique showed a lot of potential, and I think in the right hands (not hooves) it would work perfectly but I just couldn't get it to work for me.

rrblint wrote in post #19450518
See if this fits your expectations. If so I just used ordinary cloning(very carefully!)

Thanks so much, rrblint! This technique worked pretty well for me. I had to fool around with a couple settings and experiment, but was able to more or less correct the problem without creating any additional fake stars in the sky. I appreciate you taking the time to help me with the fix!