sun flare

[NorthStone]

Hi there,

I was wondering if you could help me out with an issue I have that's really bugging me. I like taking pictures of sunsets but often I find that some of the pictures which I'd consider pretty good are spoilt by sun flare like a red flare coming out of the sun and/or sometimes accompanied by a green circles and sun hexagons.

My question is firstly, how can I prevent this from happening? I use a polarising filter on my lens and nothing else. Do I need to invest in a special filter of some kind? Secondly, how can I remove this in post production? Is it easy to do? I've had a go but don't really know where to start.

I look forward to hearing from you.

BW,
NorthStone

[Iguanasan]

Do you have an example that you can post so we can see what you are talking about?

[NorthStone]

Hi Iguanasan,

Here's an example of it. The sun's just clipping the top of as hill and there's a flare and green blob on the end of it. This has also happened when the sun's in the sky and it's quite annoying. Could the angle of the sun towards the lens have something to do with it as well?

Regards,
NorthStone

[Iguanasan]

Lens flare is extremely common (pretty much unavoidable) when you point your camera into the sun. There are ways to minimize it but I don't think I can explain it near as well as Cambridge in Colour - Understanding Camera Lens Flare (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/lens-flare.htm)

[NorthStone]

Thanks Iguanasan. Your thoughts are always welcome. I've had a quick scan of that article and never thought about using a lens hood so may invest in one of those. If it makes a minor difference that would be an improvement and would hopefully avoid a stack of wasted images.

PS, how effective are UV filters? I'm not familiar with using one of those.

Regards,
NorthStone

[Iguanasan]

I have a UV filter but haven't really bothered to use it much. I just haven't run into the circumstances where I would want to put it on. In terms of dealing with lens flare it actually compounds the problem as it adds more glass for the light to reflect/refract in and around. :(

[NorthStone]

I see. So the less filters the better. Would you say it's necessary to have a polarising filter on when taken pics of sunsets/sunrises? I might just try it without anything next time I'm out and see what happens.

Regards,
NS,

[Iguanasan]

Polarizers work at reducing reflected light so for instance you can see into the lake instead of just seeing the reflection of the sky. Using a polarizer when pointing directly at the light does nothing as far as I know. I'm happy to be corrected if I am wrong but as far as I understand how a polarizer works I can't imagine how it would help in that situation.

[Bambi]

I believe that even with a lens hood you are likely to get flares when shooting directly into the sun. the choice would be to either use it artistically or remove it in post processing. that one should come out pretty easy with cloning.

[NorthStone]

Can it be reduced by playing with the aperture size? Just a thought.

You're welcome to have a go at removing the flare. If you have any tips on doing this do let me know as I have a few pics I'd like to fix.

I'm guessing that the complexity depends on what the flare sits over and if it was over faces etc it would be difficult or near impossible.

Regards,
NS

[Marko]

In many cases there's not much you can do except remove it in post. For that, in this case, i'd likely try the healing brush and/or cloning tool. (I use photoshop)
Best! marko

[NorthStone]

I'll have a go at this. What version of PS do you use Marko? Is Photoshop elements a good package to use. I know it's a budget package but CS5 is beyond my budget. I already have PS7 and while this is good the software's moved on since then and it doesn't let me edit RAW files.

BW,
NorthStone

[Marko]

I use CS5 but I have heard Elements is great and does a lot of what the full pshop can do.

[ericmark]

I have had the same lens flare and when shooting into the sun like the one you show I try to position a tree, post or something to shield the direct sun. A sheet of black card can work when not direct into sun to stop lens flare but hand held using a card as well is not easy which means carrying a tripod as well. Also often the dynamic range is too much for camera so want a series of images and again tripod is really best option. I at first used Photoshop HDR option but latter realised layers can work better than HDR but with layers the program does less correcting when you auto align images. Hence again the tripod.

[Mad Aussie]

Haven't read through others thoughts so excuse me if I repeat what some have said.
I use polarising, and UV filters etc and have found they are of limited use against flare from the sun or bright lights at night that cause a similar issue. In fact, it's my experience that removing the filters reduces the flare more.
Carry a hat with you or similar, and when the flare is evident, use the hat to shield the sun from the front of the lens. This isn't going to work when you are including the sun in your photo though.
When including the sun you will need to change your camera angle and position the sun where it creates the least amount of flare, sometimes you can eliminate it altogether.
Aperture may reduce the flare a little also, but often it just creates more of a star shape to the flare as you stop down and the aperture iris diaphragm closes in. The other thing is stopping down also will likely create an exposure you didn't want, i.e. shadows too dark and featureless etc
I find trying to remove flare in post using photoshop etc to be a bit hit and miss. I'm not too shabby with the program but it depends on the flare and what colour changes it created in what parts of the photo as to how successful I am in removing it.
The last thing I do if I get flare is try to use it. If I think the scene will benefit from some flare then I try to get the camera angle to where the flare will sit where I want it to.

[ericmark]

Good idea with hat. I must get myself a large wide brimmed hat of a dark colour. Thanks for that.