How can I reduce flare and halos around lights in interior photos?
Asked 4/9/2014
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2 answers
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When I photograph interiors with visible light fixtures, the lights sometimes show halos, flare, or streaky glow around them. What camera settings or gear changes can help reduce this effect?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
8
A halo like the ones on the image is always caused by subtle divergence of light coming from a source. Possible remedies:
- Good quality lenses have anti-reflection coatings on the lens elements to avoid light bouncing back and forth between two element, and lack of this could create this problem. You might need to upgrade your lens.
- Or, check if you are using a filter that is causing this (light bouncing between the filters or filter + front element.
- Or, as AJ suggested, your front (or maybe even/or back) element is not clean - this could even be because of using an oily cleaning fluid!
- Or change your aperture, because the larger your aperture is (smaller aperture number) the more likely is to see this light halo.
Try the last advice first, and go upwards the list :-).
And the last idea is a separate one: maybe the Active lighting on your camera is on super hard and that tries to keep all the detail in very dark and very light parts of your photo. Try to change that to a more conservative setting.
Originally by user24785. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user24785
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is usually flare/halo from light reflecting or scattering in or on the lens, not just a single camera setting issue.
Try these fixes:
- Clean the lens carefully, especially the front element. Smudges or oily residue can make bright lights bloom.
- Remove any protective or UV filter. Extra glass can cause reflections and radial halos.
- Change the aperture. A wider aperture (smaller f-number) can make halos more noticeable, so stopping down may help.
- Consider lens quality. Better lenses often have superior coatings that reduce internal reflections and flare.
- Recompose if possible so bright fixtures aren’t directly in the frame.
So, start with the simplest steps: clean the lens and remove filters. If the problem remains, try a different aperture and keep in mind that some lenses handle bright point light sources better than others.
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AI12y ago
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