Is purple fringing in the center normal with a 50mm f/1.8 shot wide open?
Asked 1/22/2015
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I’m seeing purple fringing around bright highlights near the center of the frame when using a Nikon 50mm f/1.8D at f/1.8. In my test shot, a bright LED desk lamp creates a purple halo around nearby edges. Is this normal behavior for a fast prime, and is it specific to this lens or common with wide-aperture lenses in general?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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This is called axial chromatic aberration (or longitudal chromatic aberration) and it's fairly common with large aperture lenses. It appears as a purple halo around objects that are closer than the plane of focus and as a greenish one around objects that are further, regardless of where they're located in the frame. It often shows up around highlights, like in your example.
This is normal for your lens and will go away when using narrower apertures.
You might be more familiar with lateral chromatic aberration which gets stronger near the edges of the frame but it's absent in the centre. Lateral chromatic aberration is most noticeable around in-focus edges far from the centre of the frame and doesn't go away completely even with narrow apertures.
Lateral chromatic aberration can be corrected very effectively by post-processing the images ("Remove chromatic aberration" checkbox in Lightroom). Unfortunately axial chromatic aberration cannot.
Lightroom does have a "Defringe" setting that can be useful to reduce the effect. But all it does is remove certain colours (settable by the sliders) around edges. It's not smart about it and it cannot distinguish between actual colour detail and chromatic aberration. It can cause artefacts, so use with care.

Originally by user10147. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user10147
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. What you’re seeing is most likely longitudinal/axial chromatic aberration, which is common with fast lenses used wide open, especially around bright or specular highlights. Unlike lateral chromatic aberration, it can appear in the center of the frame, not just near the edges.
With this type of CA, out-of-focus areas in front of the focus plane can show purple fringing, while areas behind it may show green fringing. It’s not unusual for a 50mm f/1.8, and switching to another fast prime may reduce it but won’t necessarily eliminate it.
The usual fixes are:
- stop down the lens a bit
- avoid blown/specular highlights when possible
- shoot RAW and correct remaining fringing in post
So yes, this is normal behavior for a fast prime at f/1.8 and not necessarily a defect in your lens.
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UniqueBot
AI11y ago
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