How can I avoid a strange lens flare at bright lights when using UV filter?

Question

I have a Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the kit 20mm f/1.7 lens. I put a UV filter on it (this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004ZCJE/ref=oss_product), simply as protection for the glass. I'm doing lots of theatrical shooting (bright lights, etc.) and I'm getting lots of lens flare in my shots. Here's an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schof/5006914162/

If I remove the filter, the flare goes away. Since I'm just using the filter to keep the lens glass clean and protected, is there another type of filter I should be using (or another brand of UV filter) to avoid this lens flare?

Asked by Schof

Answer

Thats actually a UV filter not an ND filter, very different filters :) Anyway, lower quality filters flare more, if you want to continue to use a UV filter consider a multi-coated filter. It seems other people who bought that same filter had similar complaints, see the 1st review:

"However, I had to return this item since they DON'T contain any anti-glare/reflective coating on them"

Se a similar post here re: UV filters:

Where to buy cheap UV filters online?

My advice though would be to just not use a filter, shooting directly at light sources like that is going to cause enough problems as is with flaring.

Answered by Shizam

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How do I eliminate lens circles in my pictures?

Question

I have taken a few pictures that show these circles, and I'm getting very annoyed at this problem. Seems most common on sunny days. This particular picture is not my own, but it is a good example of what I'm talking about. I can understand certain situations where I could use this to my advantage, but I am wondering right now, is there any way to reverse or prevent this effect?

P.S. As I said before, I have realized that I can sometimes use this to my advantage. In that respect, does anyone know how to cause it?

Asked by J. Walker

Answer

This is lens flare, where reflections within the lens end up showing on your photos.

General guidance to minimise it includes:

• Avoid getting the sun in shot (and ideally, avoid having it just-out-of-frame too)
• Use a lens hood to shade the front element
• Try to use lenses that have anti-reflective coatings
• Keep the front element clean, but follow the lens manufacturers advice about use of wet cleaners (generally, don't; only use a microfibre cloth)

Answered by Rowland Shaw

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Is it normal for the Canon kit lens to exhibit lens flare even without a UV filter?

Question

I recently bought a Canon 550D and have been experimenting with this for a week. I have been pretty satisfied with the quality, until I faced this lens flare problem. Notice the unwanted blue light near the red board with yellow star:

Attached are two pics

1. Shot with Canon 550D - 18-55 kit lens with UV filter on:

2. Shot with Canon 550D - 18-55 kit lens without UV filter on:

Is this level of lens flare normal? Or are there any quality issues with my camera?

P.S.: Pics are little blurred — I have quite shaky hands.

Answer

Yes, this is normal. It's important to realize that this is almost entirely to do with the lens and not the camera body. See What causes lens flare? for more detailed background, but basically, flare is the result of stray light bouncing around, and is common with lower-cost lenses and with wide-angle lenses — and the 18-55mm kit lens is both.

You can see that the problem is worse with the UV filter. A large, flat, and probably cheaply-coated glass element is ideal for bouncing light (but not so ideal for avoiding artifacts like this). A higher-quality filter will contribute less to the problem, but won't improve the lens itself. A higher-quality lens will have a design intended to protect more against random bouncing light.

A cheap thing you can do to help, though, is to shade the lens from out-of-scene light. You can use your hand or a piece of cardboard in a pinch, but really this is what a lens hood is for. It screws on the front of the lens and keeps some of the "extra" light away. (For your Canon kit lens, the item you want is the EW-60C lens hood.)

Of course, that won't help flare caused by lights in the scene (as in your image, where the blue ghost light appears to be caused by the bright white lamp on the building). For that, the best option is to compose differently — move so that light source is obscured, or just hits the lens in a less-obtrusive way. If that's too limiting — sometimes, that's the picture you want to take! — a lens which better controls flare (which is to say, a more expensive lens) will help get this kind of shot.

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Why does color reflection appear in photographs of sun or fire?

Question

What is the new color that forms in the image when photographing a sun or similar things (see attachment with a rose glare)?

Why and how it forms?

Is it good for a image?

How to increase or decrease it?

Answer

You can get all sorts of interesting shapes and colours when shooting directly into a lightsource like that. All pieces of glass reflect a certain amount of light and transmit a certain amount, so you actually get flare from everything in your scene every time you shoot, only it's usually much dimmer than the rest of the picture so you don't see it.

When you shoot into a lightsource like that, what shows up white (the flame in this case) is actually way way brighter than white, it's just the camera sensor only records up to a certain brightness. So because the object emitting light is very bright, the internal reflections it generates are much brighter and so they show up as flare.

As different colours of light are bent different amounts by the lens optics they are also reflected different amounts so it's not unusual to have strongly coloured flare. Whether it's good or not is up to you, like many things in photography some people will like it and some wont.

You won't eliminate flare when shooting directly into a bright lightsource, but it will change position as you move, also different lenses show different types of flare and to different degrees, so you just have to experiment as it's hard to predict. Filters on the front of the lens can make flare worse as there's an extra glass surface to reflect light.

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How well does the Tokina AT-X 16-28 F2.8 resist flare?

Question

Nowadays (among other projects) I'm shooting candle lights in churches (using mostly long exposures) using a Canon 17-40mm F4. (A small part of) The results are here.

I'm thinking now to buy a Tokina AT-X 16-28 F2.8 mostly because it gives me:

• One stop faster
• Much lower distortion

...but I'm concerned on how much the Tokina lens are flare resistant in the above situations (shooting candles & other light sources in a dark environment - see the link) and will not give me different green 'aliens', ghosting or any other artifacts in a much more percentage compared with Canon 17-40 F4. Perhaps I should note that I use a Canon FF camera.

Answer

I use this lens a lot, but I have not taken any pictures by candlelight. I have done long exposure photography in the vicinity of streetlights with no flare issues. I do know that you have to be very careful about flare in sunlight.

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What is causing strange horizontal “flare” on all my photos regardless of lens and/or POV?

Question

Suddenly on (almost) all photos I have a strange light band in the middle, regardless of lens and or angle on which I shoot the photos. The camera is an old Canon 1Ds Mk II and AFIAS the line of light appears when I shoot at shutter speeds faster than approx. 1/60 secs.

Here are some test photos:

It is bad? Can I fix it?

TIA for your feedback.

Answer

Looks like a shutter malfunction (which fits with it only appearing at certain shutter speeds). The shutter is made of a series of metal blades, it looks like one of these blades is misaligned, which is exposing that part of the sensor for longer than it should be, hence the bright area.

You can have the shutter replaced at a Canon service centre.

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What is causing strange horizontal “flare” on all my photos regardless of lens and/or POV?

Question

Suddenly on (almost) all photos I have a strange light band in the middle, regardless of lens and or angle on which I shoot the photos. The camera is an old Canon 1Ds Mk II and AFIAS the line of light appears when I shoot at shutter speeds faster than approx. 1/60 secs.

Here are some test photos:

It is bad? Can I fix it?

TIA for your feedback.

Answer

Looks like a shutter malfunction (which fits with it only appearing at certain shutter speeds). The shutter is made of a series of metal blades, it looks like one of these blades is misaligned, which is exposing that part of the sensor for longer than it should be, hence the bright area.

You can have the shutter replaced at a Canon service centre.

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How can I take a sun backlight portrait like these examples?

Question

How can I take a photo like the ones below? The problem is that my photos (taken with a bridge, Sony H2) will get blown up at the highlights. Is it because I'm using a weak camera? Is it because I'm shooting in JPG (can't use RAW)?

Is this dynamic range achieved by greater cameras + RAW? Or is it by post-processing?

Is there a pattern to this type of photos like: wide apperture (< f5.0), RAW, ...?

Examples:

or this or this one

Answer

That picture isn't taken with "natural lighting" -- there is a large "hot" reflector (probably a gold-toned or "zebra stripe" metallic type) to the left of the camera throwing light back into the subject.

Picture quality is rarely about the camera. It's about composition and lighting. Your camera may not be able to throw the background quite as far out of focus as the one used to take this picture, but if you make use of auxillary light sources (like the reflector used here) you can take pictures that are every bit as well-lit as this.

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Sun backlight portrait

Question

How can I take a photo like the ones below? The problem is that my photos (taken with a bridge, Sony H2) will get blown up at the highlights. Is it because I'm using a weak camera? Is it because I'm shooting in JPG (can't use RAW)?

Is this dynamic range achieved by greater cameras + RAW? Or is it by post-processing?

Is there a pattern to this type of photos like: wide apperture (< f5.0), RAW, ...?

Examples:

or this or this one

Answer

That picture isn't taken with "natural lighting" -- there is a large "hot" reflector (probably a gold-toned or "zebra stripe" metallic type) to the left of the camera throwing light back into the subject.

Picture quality is rarely about the camera. It's about composition and lighting. Your camera may not be able to throw the background quite as far out of focus as the one used to take this picture, but if you make use of auxillary light sources (like the reflector used here) you can take pictures that are every bit as well-lit as this.

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What causes lens flare?

Question

I heard a couple of years ago that only certain types of lens caused flare to appear, something related with the material and/or quality of the lens. Is this true? Which material/quality caused flare? Thanks in advance.

Answer

Uncontrolled light causes lens flare. This can be light that's reflected from internal lens surfaces, or that's scattered by imperfections in the glass.

If the flare is badly controlled, it will produce the dramatic lens flare artifacts which you've probably seen. More controlled flare will be diffused over the entire image, reducing contrast but not producing other visible artifacts.

Flare can be controlled in several different ways. A simple way is just to prevent non-image light from hitting the front element in the first place. Avoid putting bright lights (the sun, for example) directly in the frame, and prevent out-of-frame light from shining onto the lens. This is what a lens hood does — or, simply shading with your hand, in a pinch.

If there is a bright light source (the sun, for example again) that you want to have in your photograph, that's not going to help. That's a reason wide angle lenses are more susceptible to flare (and for the same reason, a lens hood can't be as useful, as a deep one would block the actual image).

On almost all modern lenses, special optical coatings are applied to the lens to help control the stray light. These are made of various metallic and mineral compounds which alter the way the lens transmits light, and they're specially chosen to reduce the unwanted scattering of light. More expensive lenses use more expensive coatings, and more expensive optical elements which have less of a problem in the first place. Lenses also have internal baffles designed to reduce bouncing light.

Cheap filters often have cheap coatings, and since they're often more exposed than the front element was, they're more prone to catching stray light. That's why adding a UV filter for lens protection can reduce image quality.

So, to answer your question directly: yes, it's true. Flare is caused by stray light, not by lens materials directly, but cheap lens materials can make it worse and high-quality ones can mitigate it. Even with a cheap lens, you can make things much better simply by using a lens hood or standing in the shade, and keeping the sun out of the frame.

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What creates this strange flare and how to prevent it?

Question

I shot at a concert for the first time. The pictures were pretty good for the capability of my equipment, but on some shots, the light has a very strange flare. It isn't the usual rays, but some soft, non-symmetric form which I find quite strange, and, on most shots, distracting.

On this image, you can see it just above Gino's head and also behind his back, to the right of the mic stand. I am not sure if the slight blue lines on the left side of the picture (they form a triangle aimed at Chris's head, maybe not visible on all monitors) are part of the problem or if they come from a different light source.

What makes them appear, and how do I avoid them?

I shot with a D90 with a 18-200 lens, no filters or hoods attached. The settings were quite strained (iso 3200, often at max length and max aperture for the length. This specific picture is 1/125, f 5.3, 95 mm).

Answer

If you're talking about the strange arcs like in the bottom left corner of this picture:

Then it's just flare caused by shooting into a lightsource. Concert lights tend to produce strong flaring effects as they are very focussed.

The only fix is to use a different lens (they all flare differently) or not shoot directly into any lightsources. However when I'm shooting concerts I usually shoot directly into the lights on purpose and use any flare as an artistic tool to make the image more interesting.

Here's another image featuring some particularly strange flare from the Canon 50 f/1.8:

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