green reflective spots on night photos of the moon

[ant325]

Hi all,
Wondering if you can help,

When photographing the moon or sun I get a green spot on the image. Is there a way to avoid this? I experience it in automatic night/sunset modes and manual mode, manual focus and autofocus, with and without a polarised filter...any ideas how to get rid of this?
Many thanks,
Anthony

 

[dradam]

Hi all,
Wondering if you can help,

When photographing the moon or sun I get a green spot on the image. Is there a way to avoid this? I experience it in automatic night/sunset modes and manual mode, manual focus and autofocus, with and without a polarised filter...any ideas how to get rid of this?
Many thanks,
Anthony

It's aliens.

Seriously though, I'd imagine that it's just lens flare.

Posting an example would help

 

[Graystar]

If you have a UV or protective filter on your lens, remove it. Don't put it back on.

If there are any other lights nearby (streetlights, lights from buildings) then use a hood on your lens. Leave the hood on.

.

 

[zackiedawg]

As mentioned above, likely flare or reflection...the above two methods both may help solve the problem - take off any filters if you are using any, and use a lens hood. Also, try dialing in some EV or underexposing the shot a touch - the moon is awfully bright (little piece of daylight, in fact) against a night sky, so it often blows out when trying to expose landscape around it and like the sun, it can cause flare.

If none of these solves your issue, then it actually could be a lens reflection - if the green spot exactly mirrors the moon on the opposite side of the frame, this could be the issue, and wouldn't really be solvable...some cameras and some lenses can be prone to this reflection with night shots - if it isn't too severe, you can always clone it out in processing.

--
Justin
galleries: http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

 

[Deleted1929]

Well don't use a filter ( of any kind ). Avoid them unless you know the shot will be better with one that without. Anything you put in front of a lens can cause all sorts of optical effects. Unless what you get from adding the filter justifies it you don't use one.

And, once more, UV filters are worse than useless in any but the most exceptional circumstances.

Apart from that use a hood. Always, if possible. A hood is almost always a good thing and improves contrast and reduces flares.

Clean the front and rear glass elements of your lens. If there's a smear that could cause some optical effects like that.

But it could just be light scattering through thin cloud. You might not pick it up as green, but the camera might apply an odd white balance and give it an odd hue.

--
StephenG

Pentax K100D
Fuji S3 Pro
Fuji S9600

 

[chuxter]

Hi all,
Wondering if you can help,

When photographing the moon or sun I get a green spot on the image. Is there a way to avoid this? I experience it in automatic night/sunset modes and manual mode, manual focus and autofocus, with and without a polarised filter...any ideas how to get rid of this?
Many thanks,
Anthony

It's aliens.

I agree. There are a few other observations you can make that would make this diagnosis firm...

1. Do the green spots move? Like if you take several different pictures of the moon at different times and the green spots appear in different places, then that would indicate that you have sighted an alien UFO.
2. Do more than one green dot ever appear in a single image?
3. Do any of the green dots have things sticking out...arms?...legs?...heads?
4. Have you shown any of those pix to your neighbors? If so, did they discount the opinion that they were aliens? (We have been invaded, you know! Your neighbors are not to be trusted.)

Get back to us as quickly as possible and do show us a few examples... ;-)

--
Charlie Davis
Nikon 5700, Sony R1, Nikon D50, Nikon D300
HomePage: http://www.1derful.info

"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
-Samuel Adams, 1776

 

[Chris59]

Hi all,
Wondering if you can help,

When photographing the moon or sun I get a green spot on the image. Is there a way to avoid this? I experience it in automatic night/sunset modes and manual mode, manual focus and autofocus, with and without a polarised filter...any ideas how to get rid of this?
Many thanks,
Anthony

It sounds like flare. To confirm, draw a line between the green spot and the Sun or Moon. Does it go through the exact centre of the photo? If so, it's flare.

Flare gets worse as you increase exposure time and is not helped by having a filter in front of the lens but there is no way of eliminating it.

 

[Leonard Migliore]

Hi all,
Wondering if you can help,

When photographing the moon or sun I get a green spot on the image. Is there a way to avoid this? I experience it in automatic night/sunset modes and manual mode, manual focus and autofocus, with and without a polarised filter...any ideas how to get rid of this?
Many thanks,
Anthony

What are you exposing for? If you're exposing for the landscape, then the sun or the moon will be very overexposed. This will make a lot of light go bouncing around in your lens. If you have a filter, the light will be perfectly imaged and get refocused on the sensor. Even without a filter, there are going to be some internal reflections.

Some lenses flare less than others. You can test to see which you should use in these conditions.

--
Leonard Migliore

 

[ant325]

Thanks for the responses guys. Is this what you would call glare then? Some nights I get it, some I don't.

Wish it was a UFO, i'd be onto a winner there haha!

 

[Leonard Migliore]

That looks like light bouncing off the sensor and then coming back off the lens. Since your source (the moon) is overexposed by about 10 stops, even a very small amount of reflection is going to register.

If you had a filter on the lens, it would probably give you massive reflections.
--
Leonard Migliore

 

[chuxter]

Ant, that is called "flare" not "glare"...flare is sorta caused by glare...

You have totally screwed up the picture by using a sensitivity setting of 3200 ISO! Use the lowest setting you have (the moon is very bright). Then use settings as if you were taking a picture of a daylight scene (because you sorta are)...something like 200 ISO, f/8, and 1/100 second...with a 35mm lens, that should be fast enough. If you want to capture more of the clouds, shoot RAW and overexpose about 1 stop (f/5.6)...then reduce the exposure and raise the shadows in something like LR.

I took your pic and "fixed" it (as much as possible)...then added some graphics to show the normal way that "flare" appears:



Notice that flare spots generally appear diametrically opposite the light source.

When you properly expose those moon scenes, you will be able to see features on the face of the moon and the flare spots will be invisible (or greatly reduced in brightness).

Try again and see?

--
Charlie Davis
Nikon 5700, Sony R1, Nikon D50, Nikon D300
HomePage: http://www.1derful.info

"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
-Samuel Adams, 1776

 

[Mademmejo]

I took these pictures tonight.  The one picture is more zoomed out and has a green shape in it. This was taken second. If anybody has suggestions on what this may be caused by, such as reflection, feedback would be great.

 

[Michael Fryd]

I took these pictures tonight.  The one picture is more zoomed out and has a green shape in it. This was taken second. If anybody has suggestions on what this may be caused by, such as reflection, feedback would be great.

If you have a filter on your lens, take it off and try again.

 

[Mark S Abeln]

I took these pictures tonight.  The one picture is more zoomed out and has a green shape in it. This was taken second. If anybody has suggestions on what this may be caused by, such as reflection, feedback would be great.

What pictures?