How to remove a sunburst from an image

[Mark30Croton]

I shot right into the sun and have a starburst which I would like to trim down

When I have used the burn tool it looked way fake

When I used the lasso or the rectangle marquee tool and adjusted exposure it was clearly a manipulation as it stuck out as adjusted

I am sure there is a way to do this but I don't know how to do it so it doesnt look like a rectangle or an oval in the middle of the image

Photo attached and thanks

Mark

[Per Berntsen]

This was done using Edit > Generative Fill.

[Mark30Croton]

thanks but I'd like to reduce it to the width of the branch. Any tool I can use?

[Stephen Marsh]

I haven't downloaded your image as I'm replying from my phone, the RGB channels of a rendered file will likely have no details to recover. Even a raw format file will have challenges, however it will allow much greater highlight recovery. Did you shoot raw?

[Mark30Croton]

I shot Apple ProRAW.  My problem was any changes I could make were so obvious it made no sense to do what I did. 

[Stephen Marsh]

Did you try using Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom or another raw development tool?

[Mark30Croton]

yes. Thanks 

I m asking how to tone down a light flair 

[Stephen Marsh]

yes. Thanks 

I m asking how to tone down a light flair 

By Mark30Croton

Please show screenshots from ACR or a similar tool using negative exposure or negative highlights to recover raw highlight data and or supply a link to the raw file for experimentation.

[Stephen Marsh]

The bottom 3 images were using generative fill with a prompt of "remove lens flare".

The top 3 images were using a generative fill field that was blank.

In both cases, there was a very rough selection around the entire lens flare area.

None of these are perfect, but some would allow selective replacement of the tree trunk, or a start point for retouching in the colour difference of the sky etc.

[Mark30Croton]

Thanks. I'll try it 

[Mark30Croton]

Can this be adjusted not using AI? Are there PS tools I can use?

[Stephen Marsh]

As I mentioned, the use of a raw file and ACR to render the image as you see fit using negative exposure and or negative highlight settings will leverage the extended latent highlight data found in the raw file, which is not available in a rendered RGB file. You will need to make the the rest of the image brighter to counter the negative exposure. Otherwise there is of course traditional time-consuming manual retouching. It's hard to make specific suggestions without having access to the raw file, or making suggestions that you may not find helpful such as "don't shoot directly into the sun"  :] 

[Mark30Croton]

Yes. I was trying to locate the sun in a notch on the tree. Not a great shot I agree. I was then curious if, apart from using ACR, there was a PS technique I didn't know to just work on that one area. 
untried to use the burn tool. I tried to select the area of the starburst and use an adjustment layer. All of this looked fake 

that's what I am asking help with 

[Stephen Marsh]

There is a fundamental difference in the latent highlight data captured in a raw file vs. the static rendered data in an RGB file.

[Mark30Croton]

Assume it is a RAW file. It is Apple ProRAW. 

[Stephen Marsh]

We appear to be going in circles!

[Mark30Croton]

Not purposely.  Are you saying for a raw file there is no tool apart from ACR that can tone down a starburst?

[Stephen Marsh]

Raw files require a raw processor to extract the latent highlight data that may not be visible with default rendering settings. Working with rendered RGB data in a raw processor does not have the extra highlight data available, it's locked in as rendered.