Lens flare, or not?

[hoppershaun]

Was out walking the dogs this morning and decided to take my camera. Took a quick shot of the sun rising through the trees. Added a lens flare in Photoshop, but can't make my mind up if I like the original better or not. Any thoughts?

Original


Lens Flare Added

[chalkie7]

I'd choose the first one myself...

[beatles2]

I like the original. Sometimes when you use photoshop there are flair circles not a big fan of that. The original is good.

[EmigrantChris]

Personally, I don't care for the lens flare effect. I think it looks cheesy, and cheapens the photo.

In this particular case, the gap between the trees is small enough that the lens flare effect obscures it, and looks completely unnatural to me. You can see the sun peeking thorough the trees in the original photo, but not if the lens flare is added.

And one more thought, with the added lens flare, the focus of the picture is taken away from the pattern that the trees are making, and given to the lens flare, which wasn't even part of the original shot.

[hoppershaun]

Thanks for the comments guys, I see where you're coming from saying that the lens flare looks unnatural. Was just messing with photoshop, never looked at the lens flare before. Ah well, lesson learnt!