Hints of dealing with night time flare

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Pen Pusher
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Re: HInts of dealing with night time flare

Post by Pen Pusher »

Was there a UV filter, or any other filter on the front of the lens.?

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Pen Pusher
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Re: HInts of dealing with night time flare

Post by Pen Pusher »

When I first started doing night shoots I read up a lot on 'how to' on-line and quite a few web sites and blogs suggested NOT having any filters of any sort on the front of the lens.

From a quick Google.
4. Avoid using filters to minimize lens flare

Using polarizing filter or ND filter might be a regular practice for those of you who click landscapes or cityscapes. As we discussed above, more elements means more chances of capturing lens flare in the photo.

You should always remove UV filter while clicking photos, as it hardly has any use apart from protecting the front element of the lens. By using the UV filter you are adding on a glass element and thus making the camera sensor prone to lens flare.

Polorizing filter and ND filter help you control the exposure of the scene, thus if the really feel the need of these filters then only mount them on the lens. If you can manage a photo without using these filters, it would help you minimize the chances of capturing lens flare.


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vulcan558
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Re: HInts of dealing with night time flare

Post by vulcan558 »

Brians nailed the issue. Forget filters.

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Paul_Reflex
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Re: HInts of dealing with night time flare

Post by Paul_Reflex »

Not using a filter would help, but a certain amount of flare would be expected pointing a lens with several glass elements (particularly a zoom lens) at a powerful light source as in the Vulcan example. I'm not sure you'll ever eliminate that entirely.

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wallace
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Re: Hints of dealing with night time flare

Post by wallace »

Your picture has disappeared, so no comment on that.

Sometimes one can use flare for effect, sometimes it works, most it is a right pain.

As for filters - UV filters were ONLY any good in the days of film photography. Digital cameras have a filter over the sensor, inside the camera to cut out unwanted parts of the light spectrum. Camera lens manufacturers spend an absolute fortune on developing coatings for lenses, so the addition of a UV Filter is unnecessary.
As for protecting the front element of a lens, that's open to debate but if it is image quality you are after - take the thing off and bin it.

The other tip is to use a lens hood when shooting into the light and avoid if you can shooting into or having strong light sources in your field of view. You can also use something to shade the front of your lens, reducing the chance of unwanted lens flare.

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phreakf4
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Re: Hints of dealing with night time flare

Post by phreakf4 »

Paul-Reflex and Wallace both make good points, but it is worth noting that flare can be just as much a problem in daylight as at night and the most awkward and annoying instance is that caused (in both cases) by a bright light source just outside the field of view of the lens. Even if a good lens hood is fitted light from such a source can fall on the front element causing flare or loss of image contrast or both. The cure for that is indeed to shade the lens from said light source. The general name in photography for such devices is a "French Flag". I usually use a grey card for this purpose (yes, I do still carry one in my camera bag) though it is sometimes necessary to enlist the aid of a friend/helper to hold the card unless one is using a tripod, in which case holders are available.
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Pringles
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Re: Hints of dealing with night time flare

Post by Pringles »

Thanks for the advice guys, and aknott for raising the subject. I was also at the Wellesbourne shoot and struggled in much the same way - turns out there was a UV filter on there that I'd long since forgotten about that was causing all the trouble :oops: Hopefully the issue is now resolved in time for the LPG shoot at Bruntingthorpe!

Thanks again all!
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Big_Gareth
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Re: Hints of dealing with night time flare

Post by Big_Gareth »

I binned my UV filters a long time ago and haven't looked back. When spending lots of cash on a piece of glass the last thing you want to be doing is shooting through a twenty quid piece of plastic.

Having said that I don't think the UV filter was the problem here. As Paul said above "a certain amount of flare would be expected pointing a lens with several glass elements (particularly a zoom lens) at a powerful light source as in the Vulcan example". I was at the Wellesbourne shoot, using top end glass and no filters; the Vulcan lights were simply too bright and sadly flare ruined lots of my shots. I've not experienced this as much at any of my previous nightshoots and I've done plenty. You won't have the same problem at Brunty for sure because the light source won't be there.

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jalfrezi
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Re: Hints of dealing with night time flare

Post by jalfrezi »

The more pieces of glass there are between the subject and the sensor, then the more likely you are to get lens flare as the light bounces around the glass elements inside the lens.

Also, some lenses are much better than others, the (Canon) 70-300 suffers much more from lens flare than the 24-105 - maybe it's to do with the longer focal length increasing the problem?

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