getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

[frankg]

I photographed a lighthouse at the end of a pier at twilight. The red light atop the lighthouse, instead of flaring & gradually feathering into the sky, has formed a fairly hard circle.
Any suggestions how best to make it a more natural, realistic, blend into the sky?

Attached is a small jpeg (original is Raw) of an image section cropped out of the entire frame.
It was shot on M43, 43mm (85mm equivalent), hand held, f2, 1/60, 1600iso.

[skoobey]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

A bit of healing/DNB combo, and then even out the color. Even now, the flair is much less noticeable in b&w.

[tiaphoto]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

I would recommend some cloning and painting with brush opacity settings pretty low. I would say no more than 40%.

[Tony W]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

An alternative select the glow area, duplicate and add a good amount of Gaussian blur (as you deem fit) to get rid of the defined edge of the glow. Paint on mask to reveal rails etc

[frankg]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

@Tony W
I like that result.
Do you make a selection of only the 'hard' line within, or on the outside of the entire red glow area.
And do you do this on a duplicate layer?
Thannks

[Tony W]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

Pretty much most of the glow and copied to its own layer. Added blur, then a mask to the layer to allow painting back the rails. It may also look a little better if some of the blur is mask away at the centre to allow a little more yellow throuhg

[Repairman]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

Way to go Tony. I would keep the glow though as 'dark' lights don't really make sense; the strong highlights on the rails give the game away.

[frankg]

Re: getting rid of light source in pic artifacts

Thanks. I'll give it a whirl.