What would cause this?

[DianeD]

Hi All,
I was out yesterday taking pictures around a historic/haunted area for talks I do for work. I was wondering if someone could tell me what would cause this in a picture. I know there is a rational and scientific explanation. These are untouched pictures ones that I probably won't use I just snapped them really quickly as you can tell no real thought involved.

We came across this little Church and stopped to take a few pictures. I just wanted to remember it in case it had some importance for my research. I see a slight faded patch in the shadows to my right.



I moved for the next photo I wanted a tighter shot of the front of the Church and I didn't notice till I uploaded the green "splotch" in the picture. I does correspond to the faded area in the shadows.


This is the picture after the green splotch, no fading but also out of sun, so I'm thinking that is part of explanation.

Thanks
Diane

[Manfred M]

The light spots are lens flare; which is caused by the light from the sun reflecting off the internal lens elements. The church is back-lit (look at how the shadows are falling).

This is why we use lens hoods and / or if that is not working, use our hand to prevent the light from the sun hitting the lens directly. A secondary effect is the overall softening (lowering the contrast) of the image.

[Mike Buckley]

It will be interesting to see what the people relatively informed about this stuff have to say. I'm not in that camp, so ignore my initial thought that your camera may have a light leak.

[Mike Buckley]

I just now noticed the green spot in the upper area of the church in the second photo, which confirms for me that it has to be caused by flare. I didn't see that when I first examined the image.

[Shadowman]

Diane,

I know you said you were doing a quick grab shot but wondering if you noticed it while shooting? Also, has anyone tried using flare artistically?

[Manfred M]

I just now noticed the green spot in the upper area of the church in the second photo, which confirms for me that it has to be caused by flare. I didn't see that when I first examined the image.

How about the big green one near the bottom right hand corner of the second image?

[Mike Buckley]

How about the big green one near the bottom right hand corner of the second image?

That looked more like a light leak than flare to me, especially in what I thought was the absence of other circular areas of green tones.

[tao2]

Hi Diane,

As Manfred says, the green spots are flare, there's also "ghosting" or "ghosting flare". This becomes apparent when ye use a small aperture, say f16, as opposed tae f1.8 or f2 where it is unseen or almost unseen. Using a wide angle lens adds tae the effect due tae the wide, light-gathering function of those lenses and the extreme angles involved. The number of lens elements defines the number of orbs or "ghosts" ye see. The whiteish "smudge" ye see in the first 2 shots are the "ghosts" because of the wide lens and the camera angle, all the lens elements are inline causing them tae merge and look like a smudge or light leak.The solution is, as already said, use a lens hood or even yer hand, being careful not tae get fingers in the shot

These are light leaks...







This is flare...some folk call it sensor flare or red dot flare





This is ghosting...





The first shot was testing an old camera, the second and third were deliberate....

[Mike Buckley]

Those last two photos are really nice, Boab. I've tried using flare intentionally but I've never pulled it off to such nice effect.

By the way, I prefer using a hat rather than my hand when preventing sunlight from directly entering the lens. That's because if I accidentally capture part of the hat, I have proof that I still refuse to care about fashion.