PP Removal of Lens Flare

[troutwhisperer]

I took this picture from my kayak and when I viewed in PSE I noticed a large lens flare (perhaps water drop on lens) in the upper left section of the photo. While I know my way around the post processing software I am inexperienced in all of the techniques. I am hoping for some ideas about how (if possible) to remove the lens flare in this photograph.

[OsmosisStudios]

You can: it involves localized contrast increases. But it likely wont look very good and it'll take a LONG time.

[zona5101]

I don't see lens flare. I see low overall contrast and I see little spots up in the left corner. If its the spots, just zoom in and use a clone stamp tool.

[edbayani]

one way of removing i is by selecting the flare with a soft brush. enter quick mask to paint the flare. exit quick mask and adjust in levels and fine tune in hue and saturation. then you can also straighten the image by using the measure tool and click on the water edge and pull to the other side of the water line and in image, rotate, arbitrary, press ok and it will automatically straighten the waterline. you can crop or extend the image to the vacant areas as a result of the rotation.
another way is by using the burn tool, soft brush and set to 10% opacity and brush the light portion caused by the flare. fine tune by brushing with sponge tool set to desaturate, 30% since in burning, there is a tendency to make the image more saturated as it gets darker.

[troutwhisperer]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will give them a try