How do I correct excess flare of street lights in a digital image?

I have a Nikon Coolpix 5700. Shots taken of streets at night come out well
apart from street lights which always appear burnt out and flared. I have
tried to correct the excessive flare by using the lasso tool in Photoshop
Elements and decreasing brightness or changing the colour to tone down the
high whiteness but I can't get the right effect.

Has anyone else experienced the same thing. if so, do you know how to
correct this problem?

Thanks

Peter

 

SNIP

Take two exposures, and with postprocessing (e.g. Photoshop) register and
blend the two images.

Bart

 

The difference in light is too great to get an "ideal" correction with
just one exposure. With practice you can improve the original as you have
tried. I am not sure what the best tools may be as I have not worked on it,

But for a real fix you need to follow Bart's advice. Make sure those
both exposures are several stops different exposure and that you use a
tripod the assure the easiest best register.