What is causing the hazy in center of this photo?

twhitwell said:

I was testing doing interior shots using bracketing with my D300 and Nikon 10-24mm lens.

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I don't have such a wide lens but I do have a D300 and Nik 16-85mm. This looks like flare to me. I would probably have drawn the curtains and then used one or two flashguns to illuminate the scene.

twhitwell said:

I was testing doing interior shots using bracketing with my D300 and Nikon 10-24mm lens. I get a hazy area near the center (under the guitar). Poparizer didn't help. I don't know if this is the lens or the light coming in from the window. Normal (outdoor) shots with this lens look fine to me. I am shooting RAW but have included a jpg here. Your comments can be quite helpful so thought I'd ask. Thanks

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I think I can understand why you use a + EV value to get into the shadows but try using a higher D lighting setting instead and perhaps matrix metering. The whole scene to me looks slightly bleached from over exposure. Where you using spot metering?

twhitwell said:

I was testing doing interior shots using bracketing with my D300 and Nikon 10-24mm lens. I get a hazy area near the center (under the guitar). Poparizer didn't help. I don't know if this is the lens or the light coming in from the window. Normal (outdoor) shots with this lens look fine to me. I am shooting RAW but have included a jpg here. Your comments can be quite helpful so thought I'd ask. Thanks

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This image is exposed right for the dark interior. The exif data show 2s at f/7.1 and ISO 200. The window occupies a good portion of the image and throws a lot of light at the lens. Assuming the right exposure for it were 2 stops below 'sunny f/16' you would have 1/200s at f/8 and ISO 200, which is about 9 stops brighter than the light coming off the guitar. Now even a modern high-contrast lens like your AFS 10-24mm (I own that lens too) is challenged by this and the residual lens flare shows up in the dark parts of your image. This is one of the best lenses for this challenge, but the challenge is just about too much.

The remedy is to reduce the dynamic range in your scene. You could rase the illumination in the room. With flash it might be possible to shorten the exposure to 1/200s at f/7.1 and ISO 200, which would also show what is before the window in the image.

Indirect flash for softer light is another option.

You could alternatively let the blinds down, or work in the evening light outside and rely on the installed illumination of the room to get that enormous contrast down.

Flare softens images, decreases contrast.

maljo