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Now this question is purely post editing but adding lens flare is really common in photography so here goes, how to make a selection of the flare that was added by Lens Flare filter in Photoshop CC 2014? Is there an automated way to do it?

I want to be able to mask the flare and tint it with blue

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Some say really common, some say overused... \$\endgroup\$ Jul 20, 2014 at 7:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ElendilTheTall it definitely has its uses \$\endgroup\$
    – K''
    Jul 22, 2014 at 1:54

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The easiest way is to create a new layer and put the lens flare in the new layer and blend it with the photo. That way you don't even have to mask it and can work on the lens flare alone and toggle it on and off to easily review the effect of the lens flare. The second half of this video describes such a method in an educational way.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ what do you mean by new layer? cause the filter can't run on empty layer, do you mean duplicating the background for example? \$\endgroup\$
    – K''
    Jul 22, 2014 at 1:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ @akram look at the video that I linked to. It explains how you do it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hugo
    Jul 23, 2014 at 5:03
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Make a copy of the layer below the one with the lens flare and move it to the top. Change the blending mode to "difference". Then select the layer mask of the lens flare layer and do Apply Image, layer = Merge, channel = RGB, blending = normal. Now delete the "difference" layer that you just created. You'll probably want to use Curves on the mask.

In case you haven't guessed already, using "difference" mode will calculate everything that changed when you applied "Lens Flare".

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