Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: PSA DC-9-30 on January 25, 2009, 12:50:02 am

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: PSA DC-9-30 on January 25, 2009, 12:50:02 am

I've been doing a bit of night shooting around the city (Vancouver, BC) recently, and am generally pleased with the results I'm getting even handheld (14-42 mm lens) at ISO 800. Even the noise (using an Oly E-510) is really not bad at all, but the biggest problem is halation, and less commonly lens flare, especially around street lights. I have been using my usual UV-haze filter, but I was wondering what other filters and/or techniques I should consider using to combat these problems.

Thanks,
Kevin

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: Richowens on January 25, 2009, 01:17:20 am

Kevin,

 Try shooting without the filter. Two less glass surfaces to create reflections and flare.

Rich

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: PSA DC-9-30 on January 25, 2009, 02:07:49 am

Thanks Rich.

Hey, did you hear, we may be moving back to the promised land (Bay Area) soon!

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: Richowens on January 25, 2009, 02:15:09 am

Hi Kevin,

Yes and we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Rich

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: dwdallam on January 25, 2009, 04:14:08 am

Don't shoot into the light? Use a lens hood? I've not had that problem using a canon 24-70L with a UV protector--which I always have on my lenses, unless I'm using another filter. You could also try a polarizer, but you will lose about 1-1 1/2 stops. can yuo post a few images of what you are seeing?

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: wollom on January 26, 2009, 06:06:30 pm

Quote from: PSA DC-9-30

,but the biggest problem is halation,

It's probably worth noting that in photography 'halation' refers to an effect resulting from light passing through photographic emulsion and being reflected back into the emulsion where is is recorded as an image.  This was more commonly seen when using emulsions coated on glass plates, and is really, really hard to achieve with modern, thin emulsion + polymer base, films.

So it you are not using film it's not halation.  Picky? Maybe.  But using a digital camera, if you are seeing spreading of point source highlights it's more likely that it is an optical effect or sensor 'bloom'.  Solutions should look at things in the optical path: filters, lens, sensor cover glasses; or the way the sensor responds to 'overexposure'.  An unlikely third option is a sensor data processing artefact–which some manufactures might attempt to call a 'feature' (insert smilely thing).

Regards

Wollom

Title: Minimizing halation, lens flare at night
Post by: ErikKaffehr on January 26, 2009, 06:46:47 pm

Hi,

It would be helpful if you posted an image illustrating the problem. In general no filter can help with the halos, jsut make things worse. You could try to stop down.

Best reagrds
Erik

Quote from: PSA DC-9-30

I've been doing a bit of night shooting around the city (Vancouver, BC) recently, and am generally pleased with the results I'm getting even handheld (14-42 mm lens) at ISO 800. Even the noise (using an Oly E-510) is really not bad at all, but the biggest problem is halation, and less commonly lens flare, especially around street lights. I have been using my usual UV-haze filter, but I was wondering what other filters and/or techniques I should consider using to combat these problems.

Thanks,
Kevin