Night shots, lens flare?

[mievil]

Finally got my OM-D outdoors in an attempt to figure out how to use it. I seem to be getting a lot of lens flare from lights, which I never got before with my E-510. Is this common to the camera/lens? It seems like I can alter the flare by moving slightly up or down in the physical position of the camera, but it's hard to actually set up for a specific shot when all I can do is be concerned about whether or not it's going to get hosed by the lights.

I've attached some images for examples. Straight out of the camera. I've got it set up the same way as I did with the E-510, so it may be operator error.

What's going on here? OM-D w/12-50 and 45 prime. I know the pics suck. Just trying to figure out the flare issue.

 

[shihhan]

1. Did you use a lens hood?

Using one is one of the easiest ways to reduce flare.

2. Are you using UV filters/protectors?

If you're finding yourself having flares, then take them off. Even the multi-coated ones will give you flare in certain conditions, and avoid single/non-coated ones like the plague.

3. Try minimising shooting straight at a light source (find a shade)

You will always have flare (although some lens will try to minimise it with coatings) while shooting straight at a light source... so find a better vantage point if you can.

4. Use a larger aperture.

Trying to shoot at f11 is a way to get diffraction / worse flare. the diffraction limit is generally f8 for MFT, so avoid using anything smaller unless you know what you're doing.

 

[axlotl]

Any camera/lens combination pointed at light sources in frame will produce flares of some kind, some more than others. Here are some suggestions:

* Make night shots soon after sunset so there is still plenty of ambient light. Then the street lamps etc are not so bright compared to the rest of the frame.

* No point in using a lens hood with light sources in frame. Removing the filter could be useful though, worth a try.

* Use the lens wide open or at optimum aperture. With M43 this will usually be around f2.8-5.6. Note in your photos the flare has a more starburst characteristic when the lens is stopped down.

Good luck

 

[mievil]

I was not using a hood or any filters. I agree that I don't think a hood would have any effect here since the light source is in line with the glass. It will be hard to not have some sort of light directly in the shot, as there are street lights all over.

I will try using a larger aperture next time. This is really bumming me out, as I said prior, I didn't see anything similar to this with the E-510 and I bought the OM-d trying to upgrade to get better low light shooting. I could shoot directly at street lights all night long with that camera and not have anything similar to this. I'd get stars on the lamps, but not any flaring.

*Come to think of it, the 45 was shot at 1.8 and there is still purple and circular shapes coming off the lamps, and one of the Ferry sign shots was shot at 3.8 and was better than the one at f11, but it was a different angle as well. But being at 3.5 there is still circular shapes coming off the lamps at outward diagonals to the source. So will having a wider aperture really help?

 

[Stefan Sobol]

I don't know what you are expecting. Any camera shooting scenes at night with bright light sources in the image will produce pretty much the same results. To get the surfaces exposed decently, the light sources are overexposed a great deal.

By taking some of the steps mentioned you can reduce the effect somewhat, but you are never going to get rid of it. An additional step (I did not see mentioned) would be to use a fixed length lens instead of a zoom.

You can also try HDR imaging in these situations, but it might not help a whole lot.

Changing your framing will help is some cases. For instance, the shot with the bird would be improved by moving a bit to the right (if possible) to get the light that appears right over the bird out of the frame. Lowering the camera so the bird's body blocked the light might also work.

 

[LincolnB]

I tend to associate lens flare with the lens, not the camera. I wouldn't blame the camera.

Some of my lenses are clearly more prone to flare than others.

 

[mievil]

Stefan Sobol wrote:

I don't know what you are expecting. Any camera shooting scenes at night with bright light sources in the image will produce pretty much the same results. To get the surfaces exposed decently, the light sources are overexposed a great deal.

I'm not sure if you are misunderstanding. So this is what I am talking about:




There is a double moon, and a flare (I'm assuming from the moon or from the flashlight) direct center of the image.


Some sort of light reflection at the base of the pole, and outward copies of the lamps


All sorts of stuff going on here. Purple streaks, stuff that looks like orbs, random streaking


Again with the purple markings and a double of the light.

To be clear, I have zero issue with starring patterns coming off of lights, and actually like it in most instances. The worst case above with the ferry sign, if it just had the crazy starring off the lights I would love that shot.

I understand that lights will be overexposed trying to capture the rest of the image. You ask "what do I expect?" I don't expect to have purple lighting in any of my shots because of light. I don't expect to have a glare in the middle of a black sky from the moon which is half a frame away. I do expect starring, and blown lights, and weird shadows and highlights and blurry images. That stuff I can deal with.

I agree the framing of the bird is crappy, but that was just an example with the prime 45 as to eliminate the kit zoom from the troubleshooting.

 

[mievil]

Thanks, Lincoln. I was wondering if it was just a symptom of the kit lens. I wish I had gotten more shots with the 45 to see if it was performing at least a little better.

 

[axlotl]

I have now switched to Lumix gear but last year when I did have an Olympus OMD kit, I found the 12-50 mm kit lens was prone to flare, that being one of the reasons it went to eBay. The other reason was overall lack of sharpness, compared to other offerings [zoom and prime] in the M43 system.

 

[Peng Bian]

Hi, I've noticed the purple light in perpendicular directions spreading outward from a source of bright light. I have not seen this with any other camera, and it seems to occur regardless of lens. Is this an e-m5 problem? I know I'm not "supposed to" point it directly at a large light source but...

 

[Aleo Veuliah]

The new nano coating on the Panasonic Lumix new lenses will reduce this, I have tried and seen some pictures. But in cases like this there will be almost always flare. It is not a thing that bothers me much. The angle from you take the picture and having the lens hood mounted helps a lot.

---

 

[Bobo Hodls]

Lenses are designed with different strengths in mind. Perfect optics has always been a challenge, leading to the array of lens choices (in all formats) and preferences of those choices.

Enter digital, and there's the sensor design to also take into account. It's reflective, and manufacturers lay different AA and other filters over the top of it, and all sorts of funky light bouncing/filtering effects can result. The character of which will vary from sensor and lens to sensor and lens.

The OM-D tends to lend a purple cast to some types of flare. The usual answer to some kinds of flare is to stop down further and re-position to mitigate an effect. But with this format one is loathe to stop down past f8-11 unless the compromise at hand calls for it.

OEM AF lenses provide their unique character to strong light sources and flare. The quality of the 'star effect' (aperture construction combined with sensor characteristics) and reflective ghosting varies among lenses. MF adapted lenses can be preferred, but they also have their own quality of character that isn't perfect either.
What results can be compensated for with developing (such as distractingly purple areas). The character of this type of tripod and handheld objective can be refined with the choice of lens. So far, out of the OEM lenses I've put to the task the Oly 12/2 is one of the top choices. For that FOV I've just recently tried on the Voigtlander 12/5.6 stopped down (interesting but the ghosting can be distracting in some circumstances), looking for the sort of quality the CV 17.5/.95 affords me for handheld nights.
Street light studies are somewhat of a specialty objective, and only certain lens/sensor combos work best, and at that one has to allow for a quirk of some sort or other in the developed rendering.

 

[mievil]

Thanks, Bob. I've got a 12 coming, and that is my preferred focal length so I'll be happy to give that a go when it arrives.

 

[jonnie burtoft]

Hi, I really like the flare from street lights, i take lots of night photos and intentionally try to get flares, they are not for everyone admitted but in certain shots they look cool and add interest by the patterns and light they produce. I am a child of the seventies so I embrace flares

To get rid of flares is virtually impossible when shooting directly at street lights, if the lightsource is just out of frame you can use a lens to cut down the flare, otherwise just go with what you get.

Cheers jon

 

[jonnie burtoft]

jonnie burtoft wrote:

Hi, I really like the flare from street lights, i take lots of night photos and intentionally try to get flares, they are not for everyone admitted but in certain shots they look cool and add interest by the patterns and light they produce. I am a child of the seventies so I embrace flares

To get rid of flares is virtually impossible when shooting directly at street lights, if the lightsource is just out of frame you can use a lens to cut down the flare, otherwise just go with what you get.

Cheers jon

Sorry, I missed out the word 'hood' after lens. Cheers jon