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  #1  
Old January 29th 07, 10:54 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Mike
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Posts: 6
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Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?

thanks

Mike
  #2  
Old January 29th 07, 11:07 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Bob Salomon
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Posts: 175
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In article ,
Mike wrote:

Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?

thanks

Mike


You can minimize, if not eliminate it, with lenses that have very
effective multicoatings as well as filters that have the same.

If you are asking about the multiple images of the aperture opening when
shooting into the light then that is eliminated by not having the light
source in the scene near the center of the scene. Have it off to the
side and use a lens with very effective multi coatings and filters with
the same.

If it is the aperture reflections remember that they will occur with
each glass to air surface in the optical system. All of these surfaces
should be multi coated in a good lens.

--
To reply no_ HPMarketing Corp.
  #3  
Old January 29th 07, 11:36 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
stuseven
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Posts: 72
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+ dont know if this applies to digital camera sensors or
not... bit. in the early days of video, pointing towards the Sun
was a big no-no... this usually burned out something, and
autofocus or other things stopped working.
With manmade lights, it should be safe... but, why not
try a polarizer ? That should eliminate flare.

On Jan 29, 5:07 pm, Bob Salomon wrote:
In article ,

Mike wrote:
Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?


thanks


MikeYou can minimize, if not eliminate it, with lenses that have very

effective multicoatings as well as filters that have the same.

If you are asking about the multiple images of the aperture opening when
shooting into the light then that is eliminated by not having the light
source in the scene near the center of the scene. Have it off to the
side and use a lens with very effective multi coatings and filters with
the same.

If it is the aperture reflections remember that they will occur with
each glass to air surface in the optical system. All of these surfaces
should be multi coated in a good lens.

--
To reply no_ HPMarketing Corp.


  #4  
Old January 30th 07, 12:04 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Nervous Nick
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Posts: 158
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On Jan 29, 4:36 pm, "stuseven" wrote:
+ dont know if this applies to digital camera sensors or
not... bit. in the early days of video, pointing towards the Sun
was a big no-no... this usually burned out something, and
autofocus or other things stopped working.
With manmade lights, it should be safe... but, why not
try a polarizer ? That should eliminate flare.


II would expect that, if anything, adding a polarizer would likely
*worsen* any existing flare problem; along the lines of what Bob was
talking about, you would be introducing another glass/air interface
into the equation. So I would concur with Bob, and add that if
possible (a big "if", I know), your best bet would be to keep the
light source out of the image altogether, and use an appropriate lens
hood.

--
YOP...

  #5  
Old January 30th 07, 12:29 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Gregory Blank
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Posts: 147
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In article ,
Mike wrote:

Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?

thanks

Mike


Most people wait until it's low on the horizon, and being filtered
through atmospheric dust.
--
George W. Bush is the President Quayle we never had.
  #6  
Old January 30th 07, 12:58 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
David Dyer-Bennet
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Posts: 1,814
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Mike wrote:
Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?


Keeping extraneous light (light that won't become part of the image you
capture) from falling on the lens will help. The extreme device,
frequently used by movie cinematographers, is called a "compendium lens
shade". It has to be adjusted just right for the shot (mostly they're
used with zoom lenses; one *could* be built that exactly matched some
fixed focal-length lens).

Whether it will *work* is another matter; that depends on how much light
there is within the frame (because you can't block that out) and how
good the baffling and anti-reflection coatings are inside the lens and
how good the blacking and baffling is in the camera body.

Holding out your hand as a shade to block out a light source just out of
frame is often enough to make a huge improvement.

  #7  
Old January 30th 07, 01:24 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
jeremy
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Posts: 984
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"David Dyer-Bennet" wrote in message
. net...
Mike wrote:
Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?


Keeping extraneous light (light that won't become part of the image you
capture) from falling on the lens will help. The extreme device,
frequently used by movie cinematographers, is called a "compendium lens
shade". It has to be adjusted just right for the shot (mostly they're
used with zoom lenses; one *could* be built that exactly matched some
fixed focal-length lens).

Whether it will *work* is another matter; that depends on how much light
there is within the frame (because you can't block that out) and how good
the baffling and anti-reflection coatings are inside the lens and how good
the blacking and baffling is in the camera body.

Holding out your hand as a shade to block out a light source just out of
frame is often enough to make a huge improvement.


I don't think that a lens shade will be effective at reducing flare when the
lens is pointed directly at a bright light source, which is what the OP
wants to do.

The quality of the multicoating will impact the results, but unless he wants
to buy a replacement lens, he is pretty much stuck with what he has.


  #8  
Old January 30th 07, 09:18 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
David J. Littleboy
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Posts: 2,618
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"Mike" wrote:

Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?


Different lenses have different degrees of susceptibility to flare. In
general, primes will be better than zooms.

So the first thing to try is shooting with a prime.

But that doesn't help if you aren't using a dSLR. If your main camera is a
super-zoom dcam (has an optical zoom range of 7x or higher), try shooting
with a camera with a less extreme zoom range (3x or 4x).

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan


  #9  
Old January 30th 07, 08:36 PM posted to rec.photo.digital
Bill Funk
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Posts: 2,500
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On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:54:22 -0800, Mike wrote:

Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright light
such as sunsets?

thanks

Mike


My experience is that if you put the light (the sun, in this case) in
the center of the frame, flare will be minimized.
Shoot wide, and crop for your composition in post-processing.
Not an ideal solution, but it seems to work.

--
Egypt slammed a contest to
name the Seven New Wonders
of the World. The Pyramids
are the only one of the ancient
wonders still in existence.
At least they were before
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
was brought out of retirement
for Saddam's farewell party.
  #10  
Old January 31st 07, 01:11 AM posted to rec.photo.digital
Bandicoot
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Posts: 470
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"Bob Salomon" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Mike wrote:

Is there any way to prevent flare when shooting toward a bright

light such as sunsets?

thanks

Mike


You can minimize, if not eliminate it, with lenses that have very
effective multicoatings as well as filters that have the same.


To elaborate on Bob's points a little:

No filter is best, but if you need one, then get one with the best coating
you can. Not all multi-coating is equally good, some lenses (Pentax, Zeiss,
....) are a lot better than others.


If you are asking about the multiple images of the aperture opening
when shooting into the light then that is eliminated by not having
the light source in the scene near the center of the scene. Have it
off to the side and use a lens with very effective multi coatings and

filters with the same.

If the light source must be in the frame, use your DoF preview to examine
the effect at different apertures. Smaller apertures will make the flare
artifacts smaller, but they can then also become brighter relative to the
rest of the image. If the aperture is small enough you may get diffraction
sunstars around your light sources, which you may or may not like. Always
experiment to see what the best aperture is for how the flare appears in a
given picture.


If it is the aperture reflections remember that they will occur with
each glass to air surface in the optical system. All of these surfaces

should be multi coated in a good lens.

Note this especially. (glass to glass surfaces will also produce some
flare, but it is very faint compared to the glass to air surfaces.) This
menas that the best lenses for such work are the ones with teh fewest air to
glass surfaces - ie. the smallest number of groups in the construction.
This menas that - other things being equal - you'll do better in this
situation with fixed focal length lenses than with zooms. A relatively 'old
fashioned' construction like a Tessar with few air to glass surfaces will -
given equivalent coating - be a better choice _so far as flare control is
concerned_ than a complex lens design with lots of discrete groups.

Better coating will reduce the _brightness_ of the aperture images and the
overall amount of veiling (contrast reducing) flare. (The type of coating
will also affect the colours of the aperture images.)

Fewer air to glass surfaces will reduce the _number_ of the aperture
images and also the overall amount of veiling (contrast reducing) flare.




Peter


 




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