What you are seeing in the photo is a specific type of lens flare known as **ghosting**. *It is an inverted and reversed reflection of the brightest highlights of the scene.* If you were to draw an x and y axis intersecting in the center of the photo, then the bright light on top of the building just left of the vertical axis is reflected the same distance below the horizontal center line and the same distance to the right (in the ball court). The greenish tint is caused by the color of the bright light. That color would be more visible at lower exposure levels. The color of lens coatings designed to minimize reflections is also influencing the color of the reflection. The other bright lights in the scene are also being reflected the same way. Lights in the upper right will show up in the lower left and so on. The five-sided shape of the *bokeh* around the reflections are due to the number of aperture blades in your lens.

The brightest parts of the scene are most likely bouncing off the IR filter on the front of your sensor and then reflecting back off the back of elements in the lens. If you can also see the reflections through the viewfinder, then the first reflection is occurring in the lens. The EF 50mm f/1.8 II was designed in the film era. Film is less reflective than modern sensor assemblies and so reflections from the camera were less of a concern. Newer lenses have mult-coated optics on both the front and rear surfaces of most or all elements to help combat this.

My Rebel XTi with the EF 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II kit lens was pretty bad to do this as well.

![Parade pic][1]


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/C4kJh.jpg