Night flare

thebaz

When taking long exposures at night anything over 2 seconds, my camera and lens seam very sensitive to any form of street light, and expose a lot of horrible flare -- it seams more sensitive than other cameras - i'm using a nikon d50 , with 18 - 70 lens , wondering is there something wrong !

DaireQuinlan

It could well be light leaking in through the viewfinder and finding its way to the CCD. My F4 has a seperate viewfinder shutter (thoughtfully coloured red) which can be flipped down to prevent this very occurence on long exposures. You could try covering the viewfinder with something as a test whilst taking a long exposure to see if it solves the problem ...

melekalikimaka

iso down? try push the ap high also

thebaz

melekalikimaka wrote:

iso down? try push the ap high also

the iso was down as low as it goes -- 200

DamoKen

hmm, got a D50 myself and normally use the kit 18-55 lens for night shots. Haven't experienced flaring such as you describe and I've taken city shots with lots of street lights, streamed car headlights etc. Have you tried as Daire suggested and used the viewfinder cap provided with the camera? Haven't had to do that yet myself but normally I wouldn't have a strong light source behind me during a long exposure.

thebaz

i don't believe problem is coming from behind , as its usually a strong/powerfull lighgt within the shot that is producing the flare -- i will try the cap on the VF , just to rule this out, but as i said problem i believe is in front of camera not behind.
I have a decent olympus p & s , that i can shoot using P, S , and A and this is not so sensitive to flare -- typical of a cheaper camera !

Finally do you , or any other Nikon user know , can i zoom in after focusing , or will this screw up the focussing , when shooting night shots , i focus on something lit up , then keep shutter button half pressed , move over my intended target , and zoom in a bit more -- is this a bad habit to get into ?

DaireQuinlan

thebaz wrote:

Finally do you , or any other Nikon user know , can i zoom in after focusing , or will this screw up the focussing , when shooting night shots , i focus on something lit up , then keep shutter button half pressed , move over my intended target , and zoom in a bit more -- is this a bad habit to get into ?

depends completely on the lens. I have an old AIS 35-105 that maintains its focal distance if I zoom. OTOH my newer 75-300 AF doesn't, I have to zoom and then re-focus. Best way to find out is just to experiment, or look at reviews of that particular lens online.

ThOnda

It looks like not sufficient coating on lenses. I mean those reflections.
Due to mechanical contruction and laws of physics you must focus after zooming. However if you have maximum apeture, you don't have to. 22 is good for shooting without focusing. And the wider lense you have, the better.
I had 17mm for a week. With aperture 5.6 was sharp everything from 1.5 meters to infinity. I love this way of shooting :-)

thebaz

ThOnda wrote:

It looks like not sufficient coating on lenses. I mean those reflections.
Due to mechanical contruction and laws of physics you must focus after zooming. However if you have maximum apeture, you don't have to. 22 is good for shooting without focusing. And the wider lense you have, the better.
I had 17mm for a week. With aperture 5.6 was sharp everything from 1.5 meters to infinity. I love this way of shooting :-)

i'd rarely be at max aperature , is it possible to auto focus in the dark , and any tips for focusing when it is pretty dark - maybe i'll just do what i was doing , focus on something lit up , keep shutter half pressed , and then frame target , and not zoom in any further , and then shoot.

ThOnda

It sounds too complicated to me. I switch to manual focus and set it manualy. 20 meters to infinity. And it's always good.
Forget about focusing by camera, there's no point to do so. Especialy shooting from tripod :-)

DamoKen

agree with ThOnda, rarely if ever use AF for night shots. Unless what I'm shooting has a powerful enough light source (i.e the moon) to lock onto. Even then I prefer manual focus.

Zillah

Wait a second...

Surely they're just burning out? You expose a night time shot so that you can see the darker areas...of course bright light sources will burn out...

thebaz

Zillah wrote:

Wait a second...

Surely they're just burning out? You expose a night time shot so that you can see the darker areas...of course bright light sources will burn out...

i have a bridge oplympus that i can do long exposures on, and this is not as sensitive to flare , as the supposedly better Nikon slr

DamoKen

Zillah wrote:

Wait a second...

Surely they're just burning out? You expose a night time shot so that you can see the darker areas...of course bright light sources will burn out...

Sorry, I was talking about focus mode for night shots and how I would find manual to be easier, primarily because with the low light conditions it can be difficult to get a lock on AF. The strong light source example I used (the moon) where you could get a lock would of course be a short exposure to capture the detail.

thebaz wrote:

i have a bridge oplympus that i can do long exposures on, and this is not as sensitive to flare , as the supposedly better Nikon slr

have you tried using a different lens?, as said I've never experienced the flare problems you've described with my Nikon so maybe you should rule out a lens problem first. Also do you have a uv filter on it? I've read that this can also introduce unusual flare. Haven't experimented with a uv on and off, think I've just done all my night shots without one present.

thebaz

DamoKen wrote:

have you tried using a different lens?, as said I've never experienced the flare problems you've described with my Nikon so maybe you should rule out a lens problem first. Also do you have a uv filter on it? I've read that this can also introduce unusual flare. Haven't experimented with a uv on and off, think I've just done all my night shots without one present.

unfortunatly i have only one lens , and it does has UV filter on it , i was going to remove it, but after dropping camera , and think the filter offered some protection, so I don't really want to take it off now !!