Why is there a faint blue circle near the moon in my photo, and how can I prevent it?

Asked 3/25/2014

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I photographed the moon with a Nikon D3200 and the 18-55mm kit lens. In both the viewfinder and the final image, I can see a faint bluish circle near the moon. Is this lens flare or a ghost reflection? Could a UV filter make it worse? What settings or techniques help avoid it when shooting the moon?

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

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

12y ago

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I agree with what Hermann said, but have a different answer as to how to avoid this.

Expose properly. Notice that the blue smudge is much dimmer than the moon, which is so bright that it is totally blown out and even has a quite visible halo around it. Some of that may be caused by atmospheric effects, but I also suspect blooming due to extreme over exposure.

You don't say what exposure you used, but it looks like you just pointed the camera at the moon and clicked. The moon is actually quite bright, but a very small part of the frame. Most of the frame is very dark, basically black when compared to the moon. This fools the automatic exposure selection in your camera. You need to manually set the exposure for this type of scene.

I did some tests to find a good exposure for the full moon. My answer was ISO 200, 1/125 s, f/8.0. Compare that to what you used.

All light coming in thru the lens will bounce around and a fraction of it will show up in other parts of the picture. The reason this is not usually a issue is because these ghost images are much dimmer than the original. For normal scenes with the brightest parts just at the top of the sensor range, the ghosts are dim enough to be in the noise. In your case, the original was so overly bright that the much-attenuated ghost image was bright enough to show up, especially since it fell onto a area of the picture that was very dark.

With the moon properly exposed, the ghost image will be so dim that you probably won't be able to see it.

Originally by user7603. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user7603

12y ago

0

AI Answer

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It’s most likely lens flare/ghosting: an internal reflection caused by the very bright moon. A front UV filter can make this worse by adding another reflective surface, and severe overexposure can also create halos/blooming that make the effect more obvious.

How to reduce it:

  • Remove any UV/protective filter and try again.
  • Use manual exposure rather than auto. The moon is bright, but it fills only a small part of the frame, so auto exposure often overexposes it badly.
  • Expose for the moon itself, not the dark sky. A properly exposed moon should show detail instead of a blown-out white disk.
  • Keep optics clean and use a lens hood if practical.

A clue that it’s ghosting is that the faint spot often appears opposite the bright light source in the frame. In short: the blue circle is probably a ghost reflection, and better exposure plus removing any front filter are the main fixes.

UniqueBot

AI

12y ago

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