lens flare artefacts??

[mrtn03]

Hello,

I'm working on an image with a problem that is lens flare related.
i did a search for lens flare in tutorials and forum.
but did not find a satifactionary answer.

The problem are large artefacts close to each other in a gradient sky.
Its a large file i'm working on, and was wondering what would be the best
way to retouch this.

i've attached a small jpg showing the problem.

[contemporaneous]

I'd clone the good parts over the lens flare problem areas. Make sure you keep a backup of your original background layer as you work on it.

You might need to do a little creative painting to get it to look right, but this is the only effective method I know of. This isn't one of those situations where you can just run a filter and it's done for you in a matter of seconds, unfortunately.