What is causing these color spots?

[Mike Buckley]

I finally see it in that last shot but I have no idea what is causing it. It doesn't look like any flair I've seen, so my guess is that it's light that leaked through the viewfinder. Only a guess.

[callousparade]

I finally see it in that last shot but I have no idea what is causing it. It doesn't look like any flair I've seen, so my guess is that it's light that leaked through the viewfinder. Only a guess.

Hmmm... I'll mess around again at sunset and try covering viewfinder and/or wrapping the camera (read that light can be leaking through any small cracks in the body) to see if I can recreate the problem and figure it out.

I do think it's weird that I got the same artifact in some shots, but not others, and not necessarily consecutively. I have about 15 shots, seems to happen worse with lower exposure wider aperture (but not always) and doesn't seem to be related to the number of cars that passed while the shutter was open.

Actually now that i think about it... it could probably be the viewfinder. Some shots i stayed right behind the cam, some I walked back a few feet (randomly haha, I tend to wander). So maybe my body was blocking light to the viewfinder sometimes, and in no particular order. There was a giant glass building behind me lol

Thanks everyone for the help! I'll post again when I get it figured

[AlwaysOnAuto]

What street is that and is that pond over at the City Library?

I'll bet it's flare caused by the filter. Try some shots without it and see what comes out.

[callousparade]

Alan, it's Warner Ave right where it crosses beach Blvd. Always awesome to meet someone nearby! My wife and i just moved here last summer from Virginia, so still learning the area

And I figured it out last night, it is indeed light bleeding through the viewfinder .
I shone a bright led light at it during a 30sec shot, got a similar (much larger) purple haze. Didn't happen with the viewfinder cap on.

</sherlock holmes mode>

[george013]

I finally saw the spot. And I recognized it. I don't know what lens you have, but the 50mm 1.8 of Nikon is known for that spot in the middle of the image. I was looking for some tests I did in the past in another forum, but I can't find it back.
I just googled and the first one http://travel-junkies.com/2011/12/12...e-of-my-photo/
h
I googled at "50mm spot in image"and you will find more of this. It happens with small diafgragma's what I remember.
I thought it was typical for this lens.
George

[george013]

Enough reading but no reactions.

You can reproduce that spot by aiming the camera at a clear sky and take a picture with small diafragma.

Another article of Thom Hogan.
http://bythom.com/rationallenses.htm

A part out of it, it's quite long,

But the angle of the last light dangle isn’t the only issue that comes up. Kodak Pro 14n users can probably tell you about two others that are common. The first is the dreaded “hot spot” of some older lens designs. The older Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 and f/1.8 are the primary culprits, but a number of primes in the 35mm to 85mm range exhibit the issue to some degree. And while the Pro 14n serves up the problem in spades, even film users have reported seeing faint inklings of the dreaded hot spot. So what’s this spot? It’s the reflection of the IR and Bayer filter on top of the sensor as defined by the aperture opening. The problem occurs at small apertures (f/16) on lenses that have their aperture blades at certain positions in the lens (usually far forward). The Pro 14n users see it more than the rest of the digital crowd because of the bright red reflectance off the Pro 14n’s filter, which is hard to miss when it gets reproduced in your picture. In the Nikon bodies the problem is still there, but usually a less obnoxious slightly bluish circle due to the lower reflectance and color of the Nikon filters. (On most film stocks, it tends to be a very faint magenta.)

George