What causes red/green fringes along edges, and how can I reduce them?

Asked 11/18/2016

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I'm seeing colored fringes in my photos, especially around high-contrast edges. In my example, the effect is noticeable near the pamphlets against the bricks at the bottom of the frame. What causes these red/green artifacts, and what can I do to prevent or minimize them when shooting?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

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Fortunately for you it is essentially certain that the bus image problem and what your camera is doing are different. Your camera's issue is standard lens chromatic aberration which is part of what you get at that price-performance level and it can often be minimised once you understand what causes it.
However, the bus image contains both chromatic aberration plus indications of a more severe problem.

In the bus image, and in other images from the same photographer, it can be seen that the images have a strong red "bleed" on the "low" side of light to dark horizontal transitions and green "bleed" on the "low" side of dark to light horizontal transitions. It is not obvious whertehr this is a camera problem or due to something in his processing system, but a camera sensor or processing issue seems most likely.


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Your issue is "normal" CA (chromatic aberration) - not nice to have, but at least well enough understood.

Your sample

enter image description here

Your example image has conventional purple-green chromatic aberration occurring on high contrast edges.

Seen most clearly on horizontal lines here

enter image description here

And on verticals here:

enter image description here

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DPREVIEW COMMENT

DPREVIEW are one of the top internet camera review sites
(IM & many others HOs). So their comments are liable to carry more weight than most reviews. I've copied some of their comments re the Canon SX210IS below.

  • Arguably the most important things to consider about a compact camera's performance are the consistency and accuracy of its metering, white balance, and AF systems, and the Canon performs very well in all of these respects. A slight tendency to overexpose in bright contrasty conditions is mildly annoying from a critical image quality point of view, but it does at least ensure that prints made straight from the camera are bright and punchy.

  • Our main concerns with the SX210 IS are actually ergonomic. As a picture taking tool, it's a fine camera, although at close to $350 it isn't cheap, and it faces strong competition from feature-rich competitors like the Samsung HZ35W and Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, both of which offer a 24mm equivalent wideangle.

We like: Large screen, decent image quality at low ISO settings, fast and responsive operation, reliable metering, AF and WB.

We don't like: Annoying pop-up flash, poor use of screen real estate in shooting/review modes, poor detail capture at high ISO settings, fiddly zoom control.

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More on the bus image and other photos from the same photographer:

Here is the source of the original bus image - Wikipedia. Photographer P Poschadel.

And here is a completely different image by the same photographer.

It can be seen to have the same "bleed" effect on some only horizontal boundaries. He tends to get red or purple "bleed" on light to dark transitions and green "bleed" on dark to light transitions (as in the bus image) . Thus -

enter image description here

It also has strongish but conventional CA on some verticals.

enter image description here

Originally by user6263. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user6263

9y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

This is most likely chromatic aberration: the lens focuses different wavelengths of light slightly differently, which shows up as red/green or purple/green fringing along high-contrast edges. It’s a common lens issue, especially with lower-cost optics, and is different from the more severe artifact in the example bus photo.

To reduce it:

  • Avoid very high-contrast edges near the frame edges, where it is often strongest.
  • Stop the lens down a bit if possible; many lenses improve away from wide open.
  • Use better-corrected lenses if this is a frequent problem.
  • Enable lens corrections in-camera if available.
  • Correct it in post-processing; many editors have a “remove chromatic aberration” tool.

So the cause is usually the lens, not a sensor failure. Some sample images online may show additional processing or camera issues, but the effect in your own photo is consistent with normal chromatic aberration.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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