How to remove lens flare from iPhone photos in Aperture

Lens flare is caused by light reflecting internally off the elements inside your camera’s lens and onto the image sensor, and usually appears as a coloured haze in your shots. Typically, it occurs when you are pointing your camera in the direction of the sun or other bright light, particularly when you are including the light source in your image. Lens flare can occur when using any camera, but certain smartphone cameras, like the iPhone 5’s, seem to be especially prone to it. Apple has suggested its own solution, which involves simply moving an iPhone 5s to change the position at which the bright light enters the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand. However, if you can’t avoid lens flare in your photos, you can easily remove it using Aperture.

1 Color adjustment

Open up your problematic image in Aperture and click on the Adjustments tab on the right- hand side of the screen. Open up the Add Adjustment drop-down menu and select Color.

2 Pick a colour

In the Color adjustment palette, choose a colour that is similar to that of your lens flare. Now click on the eyedropper tool and select an area of the lens flare in your shot.

3 Desaturate the flare

Now bring down the Saturation and Luminance of the colour of your lens flare using the sliders. Don’t worry that it is affecting the entire shot, because this will be corrected later.

4 Brush out the flare

Open up the Settings drop-down menu in
the Colour adjustment palette and click on the Brush Color In option. Brush over the lens flare in your shot to remove it.

5 Repeat with another colour

If you have more than one colour of lens flare
in your shot, repeat steps two, three and four using another colour from the Color adjustment palette until all of the lens flare has faded.

6 Tidy it up

Any stubborn patches of lens flare can easily
be cloned out. Select Retouch from the Add Adjustment drop-down menu and select Clone from the dialog box.

7 Clone it out

Hold the Alt key while clicking on any part on your photo you wish to copy over the lens flare, and then brush over the problem area until it has disappeared.

8 Boost the contrast

Lens flare can often cause your entire shot to look a little washed out, so give it more impact by boosting the Contrast slider in the Enhance tab. You may also wish to adjust the Exposure.

9 Crop the shot

Remove the blown-out sun from your shot to get rid of any remaining lens flare. Select the Crop tool and drag your cursor over the area of your shot you wish to keep, then click Apply.

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