What are the bright circular spots in my night photo with a Tamron 10-24mm lens?
Asked 6/4/2022
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2 answers
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I’m new to night photography and noticed several bright circular spots in a 10-second exposure made with a Tamron 10-24mm at about 10.5mm, ISO 200, f/3.5. A similar shot from the same location with a different lens did not show them. Are these signs of a lens defect, or are they normal reflections/flare? I also tested again later and found they appeared at 10mm and 13mm without a hood, but disappeared when I used a hood and also at 16mm.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
10
They're internal reflections of a bright light source inside the lens; from their position and the lighting on the trees, I'm going to guess there was some street lighting somewhere just out of the bottom of your shot.
Modern lenses are pretty good at eliminating this kind of internal reflection, but not perfect. If the artefacts appear on every shot, in may be that the lens does have a defect; if it's just on this one shot then it's just one of those things you have to learn to live with and work around; a lens hood may help if you weren't already using one, and remove any filters if you were using any.
With regards to your second photo, it is a significantly tighter shot than the first and doesn't even include the area where the reflections are in the first photo. I don't know the specifics of the lenses and it may be that the 16-300 is just naturally more resistant to internal reflections than the 10-24, but there's nothing there which demonstrates an actual problem with your specific copy of the 10-24.
Originally by user11371. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11371
4y ago
0
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These are most likely lens flare/ghosting: internal reflections caused by a bright light source just inside or just outside the frame. Night scenes with streetlights or other strong point lights commonly produce this, especially on ultra-wide lenses.
Because the spots disappeared when you used a lens hood, and also changed with focal length, this points to normal optical behavior rather than a defect. Filters can make this worse, so remove any protective/UV filter when testing. A hood, slight recomposition, or shielding the lens from stray light can help.
Your comparison with the other lens doesn’t prove the Tamron is faulty, since different lenses flare differently and the framing/focal length also changed.
If the artifacts showed up in every image regardless of lighting, then a defect would be more likely. Based on your follow-up test, though, the lens seems to be behaving normally.
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