Lens Flare on Opera House Silhouette - Keep or Remove?

[graciousness]

I took this shot over a month ago as part of my Sydney Opera House study and this photo, in particular, has me baffled.

It suffers from lens flare.

Or does it?

What I mean by the question is that do you guys think I should clone out the lens flare or is there a place for it in this image? I seriously can't make up my mind and I've toyed around with this photo on post production for a while and I don't know which direction to go. I'm not a fan of cloning out anything on photos at all except when it's absolutely necessary, esp in cases like this where it's a lens/equipment issue and not the background.

There was a green, reflective flare on the sail silhouette that I did remove because that was just absolutely unnecessary, but the one on the tip of the roof - I don't know. I like it and don't like it. So I'm here in the critique section to see if I can gain any further insight on this matter. Of course, any other critique on this shot is wanted



Camera Canon EOS 40D
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
Lens: 24-105mm L
Handheld shot

Many thanks for any advice you can give!

Cheers,

Grace

[Bruce A]

Grace, I feel the same as you. It seems to work for me as the sun is visible so the flare seems expected, but with all flare remove may well look great too. Very Nice shot! Sorry I'm no help.

[Woody]

I'm with Bruce. I works quite well. Almost an abstract photo (if you can have one) Its in keeping with the style. Leave it there.

Cheers,

John W

[RobbieG]

I like it, it works for me and as Bruce said, it is something that I would expect to see. Sorry I'm not much help but just an opinion.

[graciousness]

Oh guys, don't think you haven't been any help - its exactly your opinions that I am looking for!

I thought it was just me trying to be artsy or something by leaving the lens flare.......mind you, I don't know if it's still aesthetically detracting the focus away from the strong silhouettes or softened the impact of the shapes. It's hard to determine this alone, really, as I'm not educated to skilfully look at these things.

All your opinions help shape the direction on this. Many thanks for your responses!

[milosh]

I like the flare, I almost always do.

[RichardTaylor]

It's an artistic decision.

If the photograph is for you and you are happy with the flare then that's ok.
If the photograph is for somebody else (a client) and they don't like the flare then it needs to be removed.

Personally, in this case, it doesn't work for me as it distracts from the simple clean lines of the Opera House.

[SwissJon]

It's a lot of flare to remove if you're going to do more than the two spots... if you start, you'll have to do it over the glass area too, and unless you're a real magician, you're going to end up with it showing.. I'd leave them in and say they're artistic.

As for the two spots at the top.. Hmm.. Not much work to get rid of them, try it and see if you like it that way.. My feeling is that you should leave it as is.

[JFSanders]

Adds to the photograph in my opinion. Leave it. If the green hue is causing a problem you can change it with a localized edit in color correction.

Jim

[kaintheo]

I agree,

I like it, and for me it gives me something else to look at, it show that that sun is fully there in the backround as opposed to just a cloudy sky that happens to be brighter than the foreground.

Kain