How to remove Lens Flare or whatever it is?

[uachemeams4hm]

I shot these two pictures kinda into the sun. They were both taken with the D300, 70-200 f/2.8 VR with hood attached. It was a wuick turn to get the action. I have done some Post Processing but I am stuck on how to remove the lightness at the bottom. Anyone have any suggestions?

[timbertoes]

"Burn" as in Dodge/Burn tool
Burn tool on the dirt at bottom, dodge tool on the Young Man's face and Jersey, and some on the Runner, and a touch or two on the Ball.

[bondarnes]

Just one of the perks of shooting into the sun. A longer lens hood would help until you start to zoom back then it would begin to vignette the corners or worse.

[timbertoes]

from an instructor in "skool" :)
I made it an action that you use with the Dodge Burn tool. I think it went like this:

create a new layer.
set color to gray.
set opacity to 50%
set to overlay.
use dodge or burn tool on that layer.

use 5 to 8% opacity on the tool itself. pick brush with soft feathered edges.

If you over-do it, it will show up in a print, so be careful.

Like I say I forget.. but somethinlg like that, maybe some one else has a better method! (hopefully)

[luis_relampago]

Heres my take on it.
1 curves adjusment
2 dodge and burn
3 color correction on LAB
4 unsharp mask

[sniperkittie]

I masked the lower part of the image at the and feathered it at shoe level of the player in the forground. Then I made bightness and contrast adjustments of that portion of the image. Next I removed the mask and adjusted the whole image brightness. Same on teh second image. Used Corel Photo-Paint X3

Looking back, perhaps I should have worked the upper part of the images first.

[my3peas]

nice take, luis

[MicWayWal]

Adam,

Here is a sports photographer trick that may help. When the sun gets low like this, the lens shade alone is usually not enough. If you are prepared you can put a piece of flexible cardboard and wrap it around and rubber-band it to your lens shade. Push it out as much as you need according to the focal length and aperture you are using. Ghetto version: Put your hand on top of the lens shade and slide it out enough so the lens flare will go away without your hand in the photo.

[uachemeams4hm]

Originally Posted by MicWayWal

Adam,

Here is a sports photographer trick that may help. When the sun gets low like this, the lens shade alone is usually not enough. If you are prepared you can put a piece of flexible cardboard and wrap it around and rubber-band it to your lens shade. Push it out as much as you need according to the focal length and aperture you are using. Ghetto version: Put your hand on top of the lens shade and slide it out enough so the lens flare will go away without your hand in the photo.

Thanks so much. I need to find a sports photographer in the Lake Jackson area and go out and shoot with them. These are the tricks I need to learn. Plus personally I think I need to improve in my captures (where to stand and stuff)