Lens Flare

derek · Lens Flare

took some photos tonight and some turned out ok but others have lens flare. i had a graduated filter on. how do i prevent lens flare?

This photo's not very good i know but is ruined by lens flare

This would have been good (if a little dark) except for the lens flare

cheers derek

creators

I don't know what you could do on camera to avoid lens flare, there are others here with more experience than me who can probably help. However, both shots could be restored through cloning out the flare, of through a bit of copy/pasting and blending, either way they are not lost.

Evolution104

In your first image, there is a little flare in the upper right part of the window, but the bigger problem seems to be hot spots (blown out areas) due to the reflection from the sun. There isn't much to be done about the hot spots other than shoot from an angle that elimimates them, or shoot under different lighting conditions where they won't be a problem.

When shooting directly into the sun or a highly reflective surface, it may be impossible to eliminate flare.

If a lens is dirty, that can contribute. Another cause can be stacked filters/lenses which add to inner reflections or cheap lenses which do not have a sufficient light baffle design or black, non-reflective interior coatings.

Other than when shooting directly into the light source, one preventative method is to use a good lens hood.

As this article from the highly regarded Cambridge in Colour site recommends, thoughtful composition to minimize flare due to the lighting is ultimately the best prevention. They also mention that the appearance of the flare can be altered by changing the aperture. This may not eliminate the flare, but might reduce it to acceptable levels.
TUTORIALS: LENS FLARE (Cambridge in Colour)

Lens Flare: What Is It And How Do You Prevent It?

Lens Flare - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Eliminating Lens Flare

Avoiding Lens Flare

derek

Thanks everyone for all the advice and useful links. Before I read them I did actually go out last night and put a lens hood on to see if there was any improvement. I've posted a couple more taken again in Sywell Country Park in the landscape section. Unfortunately I do have a couple of cheap filters which could be the culprits.

I was quite pleased with the later photos I took although they need cropping as the lens hood can be seen in the corners.

Many thanks
Derek

Venom

derek

creators

I've done them both Derek if you wanted to see what could be done, could do walk throughs as well, if that would further help. However, PS crashing your machine is a bit of a tricky one.

Venom

derek

Yes please to both. Very Happy

I did just try myself in Photoshop but as usual the
PC crashed whilst I was in mid clone! cyclops_ani

Much appreciated
derek

creators

Ok, this one was fairly straight forward, I cloned out the flare in the trees but did do some cutting and pasting in the sky to really get rid of all the flaring.

This one was trickier, I cleaned up the wall and side window with cloning, but, the main window I copied a light window pane and pasted individual panes, resizing as necessary, and changed the opacity of each, to cover each of the glared out panes and cloned in the frames. If you or anyone wants a walk through, just shout.

derek

Well our resident Photoshop man (creator) will soon point you in the right direction.
What editing software you running and how much Ram as your PC got?
I know when I installed CS3 on mine I had to put another Gig of Ram in.[/quote]

PC is AMD Athlon XP2000 1.67ghz with 512mb RAM sign5

and I have Photoshop CS2. Thats not enough RAM is it? sign5

Derek

derek

Thats great, especially impressed with the church window - thanks for taking the trouble to do that. How long did it take? I will take you up on walk through at a later date when I have either installed more RAM or replaced the PC.

cheers
derek

Venom

Now I'm no PC bod and I know theres people on here far better qualified than me when it comes to PC's but I'd say you need a min of 1 Gig of Ram.

creators

creators

Venom

Yeh I think 1 gig is a bare min, but I now run 2 gig as CS3 eats the stuff Smilie_PDT