Avoiding Flare

[will king]

In a recent trip to Oahu and Maui, I was extremely disappointed with the

horrible flare I was getting with my 16-35 f/2.8L on my 5D. I shot a lot of

seascape scenes at sunrise and sunset and even with a Hoya polarizer and a

Singh Ray 3 stop grad ND I was still getting flare. My 10-22mm on my 20D never

had this issue. Is the 16-35 just bad with handling flare or am I doing

something wrong? Does anyone have this issue with the 17-40mm?

[andrew robertson]

Were you using lens hoods? Putting both a (circular) polarizer and a grad filter on the lens

adds an additional 6 reflective surfaces to its formula. Lenses like the 10-22, 16-35, and

the 17-40 for that matter are complicated and loaded with elements and air glass

interfaces already.

 

The best you can do is to stop the lens down (so you save your vision) and carefully adjust

the framing to ensure minimal reflections if the sun is in or just outside the scene. Any

stray non image forming light that hits the front element of the lens will cause veiling flare

or worse. I sometimes use my hand to block stray light when hoods alone aren't sufficient.

[phyrpowr]

Another thing to try is: camera on tripod, cable release, get out there and make sure all of the lens is shadowed (but only just)

 

As Andrew pointed out, that's a lot of glass surfaces, any light hitting directly could be a problem

[lester_wareham]

My 17-40 is slightly better for flare than my 10-22. I guess a faster wide angle might be more prone than a slower one but I have no evidence of that as I don't use the 16-35.

 

The filters might be adding some flare, I use Hoya S-HMC and the lens generally flares first although the filter may add some secondary spots.

 

I suspect the Singh Ray 3 stop grad ND is a resin filter and so uncoated, this might be a problem.

 

Can you put up some examples.

 

Also to help here is a link to the controlled testing I have done on my lenses for flare.

http://www.zen20934.zen.co.uk/photography/LensTests/Flare/index.htm

 

And here is a table of manufactures filter info

http://www.zen20934.zen.co.uk/photography/LensTests/Flare/FilterData.htm

[alan_myers]

Rule of thumb whenever the setting sun is in or near the edge of the image area is to remove all filters. They will cause a lot of flare. The lens hood doesn't help much in this instance, but can't hurt either.

[les]

This picture has been shot with 17-40 at 24mm focal length at f16 and 3-stop Singh Ray ND. I see no visible flare (although it could be different if the sun was at the edge of the frame, I have some shots which show quite a bit of flare in that situation - nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of patience in PS, though).

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5420385&size=lg

 

Hope this helps.

[William Kahn]

In those shooting situations, I always use a lens hood plus a very valuable adjunct to it: A broad-brimmed hat. After setting up, I check the front of the hood to see if there's any sunlight at all hitting the inside of the hood, even if it doesn't appear to be hitting the glass directly. If there is, off comes the hat, and I hold it at an angle that blocks the sun, but far enough away to stay out of the frame. This can be a real challenge, especially with wide angle lenses. Sometimes it's helpful to have an "assistant" hold the hat for you. But, it works! And, when it's not preventing flare, it's preventing sunburn.....

[awindsor]

I keep hoping Puppy Face will chime in since he has direct experience. You are torture testing a zoom taking pictures of an Hawaiian sunset.

 

Most people using grad NDs use a rectangular filter holder to allow them to position the transition. On a wide angle lens this prevents the use of a hood. Some holders have hoods but they cause vignetting with very wide angle lenses. So a hood is not really an option.

 

Hood and hats won't help if the sun is in the frame though in general I agree with this advice. A grey card, hat, or piece of paper is often more efficient than a hood in preventing flare (especially on zooms where the hood may not be optimal at all settings). There are even little holders than sit in the hotshoe or clamp to the tripod to hold the card for you (a variation on the French flag). An when using a rectangular filter holder it is often your only option.

 

Shooting directly into the sun the polarizer is not doing much for you and they are often bad at handing flare due to their uncoated surfaces.

 

If you want a sunset picture then try and get the sun as near the lens axis as possible. You can crop to get a better composition and it will give you the best flare handling.

 

Very few of my shots contain the burning orb directly:

 

Here the sun is partially obscured by the bridge and centre frame:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/4843735&size=lg

 

Here the sun had dropped below clouds:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/3965086&size=lg

 

Both were taken with zoom lenses that don't handle flare particularly well - one was taken with the 28-135 that is particularly prone to flare. The bridge photo contains flare but it doesn't seem to detract from the picture since it surrounds the sun.

[awindsor]

If you want a sunset picture WITH A FLARE PRONE ZOOM then try and get the sun as near the lens axis as possible.

 

The other option is to use a less flare prone prime.

[ujwal]

Some lenses perform better and some perform not to well to flares.

Generally primes are better.

Adding many glass surfaces (polarizers, ND grads etc. add more flare )

hood is mandatory( bigger the better) but i have experienced that using your hand or hat in front and above the lens so that its shadow falls on the lens ..as the second most effective way to cut the flare.

 

the best way to have no flare is not to point it towards the sun...but thats where 1/4th of picture are. :)

 

i had chance to use the 17-40 and the flare is not a very big issure with this lens. of course, i used my hand to shade the lens and instant flare cut off and increase in contrast.

 

cheers.

Ujwal.

www.ujwal.com.np

[yakim_peled1]

>> and even with a Hoya polarizer and a Singh Ray 3 stop grad ND I was still getting flare.

 

Generally, the more filters you put in front of the lens, the more chances you have to get flare.

 

>> Does anyone have this issue with the 17-40mm?

 

 

No. My 17-40/4 is VERY flare resistant. The only filter I have is a B+W MRC CPL. In a recent test did not induced any flare.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.