Removing Light Leak from Photo

[jasonsmith894]

<p>I have a long exposure image that sustained light leak streaking. It's not as bad as it could be, but it still looks pretty awful (even when I convert to monochrome, which is what I intended for this image). I would love to be able to save the image, if at all possible, but cannot seem to correct to remove the light leak. I've tried cloning out some of the leaks, and I can get it to look respectable, but I was hoping someone might know of another technique to correct the image. I've attached an uncorrected copy of the image. I appreciate any ideas anyone may have. Thanks in advance for your help.</p><div></div>

[blumesan]

<p>Jason-<br>

That looks like a tough one. What editing software do you have available?</p>

 

[jasonsmith894]

Photoshop CC, Light room CC, Nik Effects and Topaz

Labs. Two of those are filters, but that is all the software

I'm using. Thanks for the reply!

[MathewDH]

<p>Basically, with Photoshop, I see most of it as a copy and paste effort from areas just to one side or another of the vertical lines. This will need to be done in sections but taking your time and some patience will get the job done. Then pay attention to a careful adjusting of the brightness, and soft erasure along the edges. The red band between the white vertical lines might best be adjusted as a second layer and this time shifting the red and magenta tones via the hue control towards blue and/or green.</p>

<p>Once you have dealt with scans of old damaged prints in color or black and white, this becomes a simple process. It just takes time and attention to detail.</p>

<p>CHEERs...</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>I doubt it will give you exactly what you want, but before converting, can you desaturate the purple/magenta or play with the sliders in the color section of LR. In HSL palette, open to display the 3 areas separately and in the saturation zone, click on the little "knot" symbol. Put the cursor, which is now a knot onto the purple area and drag the mouse down, de-saturating the one color. See if it gets any better and then convert to b/w. But not sure that will work, and I think cloning, which is easier to control in CS (IMO) would be very difficult to get a clean result. Good look, I'm curious to see what happens.<br>

Plus you may have to use a couple of technique, such as local adjustments to darken or alter desired areas.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>See Mathew above. I took a quick look in LR, and was able to get out some of the purple, but the streaks are a big job and needs to be done in CC. It will take time and patients. If you are intent on converting to b/w, I would do that first, and then create a second layer in CC and work with both the clone tool and the healing brush. It will take patience and you will have to work the areas around the streaks. First on one side and then on the other and work it in. Have fun:)</p>

[jasonsmith894]

<p>Thanks for all the tips. I started cloning it out using layers, but I was hoping there was a less tedious way to get this done. I'll give some of these ideas a try. Hopefully the end product is worth the effort!</p>