How do I eliminate lens flare in my pictures?

Question

I have taken a few pictures that show these circles, and I'm getting very annoyed at this problem. Seems most common on sunny days. This particular picture is not my own, but it is a good example of what I'm talking about. I can understand certain situations where I could use this to my advantage, but I am wondering right now, is there any way to reverse or prevent this effect?

P.S. As I said before, I have realised that I can sometimes use this to my advantage. In that respect, does anyone know how I can create this effect?

P.P.S Does this effect in any way damage my camera sensor? I know that pointing my camera directly at the sun can hurt it, but will this do any harm?

Answer 1

This is lens flare, where reflections within the lens end up showing on your photos.

General guidance to minimise it includes:

• Avoid getting the sun in shot (and ideally, avoid having it just-out-of-frame too)
• Use a lens hood to shade the front element
• Try to use lenses that have anti-reflective coatings
• Keep the front element clean, but follow the lens manufacturers advice about use of wet cleaners (generally, don't; only use a microfibre cloth)

Answer 2

As has been said this is the result of lens flare. Lens flare is caused by a point source light in the field of view of the camera. In this picture that source is the sun. But you can see this effect with other point sources such as a lamp, flashlight, or headlight.

Another factor in the intensity of lens flare is the aperture. A small aperture (large f number) will make lens flare more obvious. You'll also see more lens flare with wide angle lenses and any lens without a lens hood.

So here are a few simple ways to eliminate lens flare: always use a lens hood, do your best not to have a point source light shining into the lens (like the sun), and be mindful of the aperture you're using.

Answer 3

Another thing to do to help reduce (but usually not eliminate completely) lens flare is to remove any filters you have on your lens. Each piece of glass between your subject and your camera sensor has the potential to add one (or more) additional circle.

I once noticed some terrible flare taking some photos of candles. When I removed the UV filter I had on the lens, the majority (but not all) of the flare went away.

This is one reason many people swear against lens filters. :)

Answer 4

Regarding lens flare, there are the following remedies:

a) remove your UV/protective/whatever filter

b) get one that is commensurate in quality with your camera or better. For one thing, this usually means crazy expensive. For another, most filters have plane surfaces and consequently are more prone to flaring than most lens element surfaces of the camera itself. So you are more likely to be successful by just removing the filter.

c) use a good-quality lens hood intended for your camera. This helps with off-frame light sources but will not actually help with the given image since the light causing the flare here will not get blocked by a lens hood. A lens hood also protects the front lens element when dropping the camera.

A circular polariser filter can in some cases help against flare, but it's very situation-dependent whether one can find an orientation where it will not rather exacerbate the problem.

Answer 5

That is flare from the light source (sun).

Apart from not including the sun in the frame, you can use a lens hood. That will eliminate a lot of it.

Newer and more expensive lenses have coatings that reduce flare to some extent.

Also a dirty lens will exhibit more flare.

Answer 6

Usually, most of the normal lenses with any diopter level will have optical refraction problems when the light passes between the different layers of the lens, so that generally when looking at the final image, blue flames appear on one side and red flames on the other side. will give, because this is the result of light splitting by the sharp corners of the lenses, which have a function similar to a prism, but to solve the problem, you can do as described by the previous user above, or finally import the image in Lightroom and Go to the lens profile section and the optics section and activate the remove cheomatic aberration and enable lens corrections options so that Lightroom can fix many optical refraction problems based on the camera model and lens type.