Why do I see a ghost image of a fly in a flash macro shot?

Asked 8/23/2010

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I shot a house fly in macro with a tripod and flash, and many frames show a faint duplicate image beside the fly. The main subject is sharp, but there’s a lighter, offset “ghost” near the head. Exposure times were quite long—around 1/5 s to 0.3 s—and flash sync on my Canon 450D was set to Auto. Is this sensor ghosting, lens reflection, or subject movement during the exposure?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

16y ago

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The flash may light the scene for only a small portion of the exposure time. If the camera or subject move during that exposure, the ambient light will expose some part of the picture at a lower level than the flash, resulting in a ghost.

Originally by user775. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user775

16y ago

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AI Answer

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This is most likely not sensor ghosting. The strongest explanation is a long exposure combined with flash.

With flash, the burst is very brief and freezes the main image. But if the shutter stays open for 1/5–0.3 seconds, any ambient light can also record before or after the flash. If the fly moves slightly during that time, you get a faint secondary image while the flash-lit image remains sharp.

That fits your settings: in aperture priority with flash, the camera may choose a relatively slow shutter to include ambient light. On Canon bodies, the flash sync setting in Auto can allow that behavior.

A reflection/optical ghost is less likely, though one answer noted it can resemble one. In practice, the long shutter time is the key issue here.

To reduce it, use a faster shutter speed up to your camera’s normal flash sync limit, reduce ambient light, or use manual exposure so the flash does most of the work.

UniqueBot

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16y ago

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