Problem
 

I'd like a bit of help please as I am new to photography and if you look at my photo below you can see what I mean. The light looks wrong at the top right of the photo, I don't get this on all photos so can anyone advise me how to correct the problem. Please don't get too technical.

Alan,

Can you remember where the sun was relative to your camera position when you took this. There is the possibility that it is ......... technical term here ' flare '. If the sun is oblique onto the lens it would produce an similar effect.

Don

Looks like flare to me in which case shield the lens surface with a lens hood or even with a hand (out of shot) to prevent the oblique rays hitting the lens surface.

Use Metering lock. Or change metering mode on your camera (if posssible). Or Meter from the area which you want to have correctly, then recompose (reframe) your image holding the shutter button half way. This option most cameras (even point and shoot ) have. Another method is bracketing or last resort: everything can be fixed in Photoshop.

Susan

I'd go for lens flare also. I assume your avatar is the camera your using. Not sure if you can get lens hood for this type of camera but shielding with your hand is the next best thing.

If it is flare which I think it is then Susan's advice will not help I am afraid. That advice is for helping with an exposure problem whereas you have a local loss of contrast and none image forming light spoiling the shot ie flare.

Thanks to all who have given me advice, I think I'll try using my hand to shield the lens and see how I get on. Thanks again Alan. P

Hi Alan, I was looking again at your photo, but do not see a flare. Lens flare is basically glare from the rays of the sun (which I did not see here) or something that gives off a high amount of light.I think on this picture is seems more like an orb. If you want to identify a photo as either lens flare or a genuine orb photo here are some pointers that can help.First you should check the shape of the so-called "orb" or "orbs" in question. If they are not circular, for example, they are hexagonal in shape and are multi-colored then you most likely have lens flare. But here, I do not see any particular shape so I think it is an orb as they are always white in color. Or perhaps it is another phenomenon such as dust or drop of water on the lens... the like. It needs more experimenting.

Susan

I'd like to enclose an attachment to my post, but did not figer out how.

Susan

Lens flare can take various forms - not all show satellite beams, ghosts or hexagon shapes.

Attached is some samples I've borrowed from the bobatkins site that illustrate flare in the top row and the bottom row show the benefit of a lens hood.

Susan,

Below the "Quick Reply" box where you probably typed in your comment, there is a box marked as "Go Advanced". If you click on this you have many more options as to how you can compose your comment. One option is below the text entry box shown as "Manage Attachments", by using this box you can add attachments to your post.

Hope this helps.

On other matters, I'd agree with Robski that flare does not have to be hexagonal. It is often hexagonal when seen on a DSLR where the aperture blades form a hexagonal (or heptagonal, or octagonal...... etc) hole dependent on the number of blades forming the lens aperture. This kind of flare is seen when the blades of the aperture form a stray internal reflection within the lens. I agree with your advice on metering modes and methods, this will no doubt be helpful Alan with his general photography skills regardless of this specific problem.

Regards,

Duncan

I'd just like to ask if anyone knows where and if I can purchase a lens hood for my digital camera. My avartar is the camera I use a samsung S1050 so is it possible to fit a lens hood to this type of camera.

Hi Alan - you should not need a lens hood with this camera as the lens itself is recessed behind the lens cover - this creates a permanent lens hood. I would suggest you have a good look at the lens and carefully wipe it with a lens cloth if it looks smeared at all. I have looked at the thumbnail you posted and IMO you have a greasy? mark or some condensation on the lens which just needs cleaning off. I have looked at the specs and am impressed - a 5x Optical zoom and 10.1 mp - shake reduction etc - does it make tea as well? Anyway to repeat - lens hood is built in by the recess of the lens and remember to use that blind on the front to protect your lens.
Looking forward to many posts.

I am glad, Andy, you do agree with me that it is an orb as they are cause usually by some dirt/dust/drops of water. I found out about orbs on internet. Personally I use lens hoods too, and "nothing against them". I darkened the photo in question and did not see any strong light, just blue sky. It is not "the fix" of it, just to see more detais. If i manage i'll send it. About these orbs is a lot of interesting reading on internet and it would be nice to discuss them more.

Susan

Attachment 4152
It looks, I did it:D

Susan

Go on Susan - tell us what you did.

Can anybody explain why the so called orb effect is not the result of lens flare ?

The only thing I can see special about orbs is that you are dealing with pin point sources of light.
To be honest I would not describe Alan's effect as an orb after studying various photos of the effect on the net.

The "flare" effect is the result of light scattering. In the "ideal perfect" lens the transfer of light should be 100%, Sadly this is never the case therefore all optical lens suffer from flare to some degree. When light meets the boundary of a different density material its direction of travel bends. Which means that some of the light will be reflected away and some will transfer through it. The light scattering in different directions is the effect we are seeing. Whether you want to call it orbs or flare is a matter of choice and convention. Slight light scattering usually just manifests itself as a reduced contrast because the scattered light is lightening dark areas. To what extent light is reflected or transfered is dependent on the angle of light striking the boundary surface. In the case of the optical crown glass - air boundary the critical angle of when most of the light is reflected away is approx 41 degrees.

The problem with compact style of cameras is that they use a tiny sensor. This requires the use of an ultra wide angle len (typically 5 to 7mm) to get a sensible field of view. The plus side is a great depth of field and close focusing. The down side is that you are more likely to see blemishes and other effects on the lens front element.

Andy's prime suspect of a thumb print or such is a possible cause of this flare. Remember a greasy thumb print is a material of a different density.

Lens coating is about using different density materials to your advantage.

An interesting study of the behaviour of light is the science of rainbows.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/rainbow2.htm

Attached is Alan's original image reduced to 8 gray levels.
It can be seen that shaded brick area on the right is 100% brighter than the lefthand side. This flare maybe due to a thumb print or a strong light source on the lens front element.

Agree with Robski, flare can (and often does) show just as loss of detail or contrast to all or part of the picture. Robski's attachment shows this well and is something that I have to be aware of with my 70-300 DO IS Canon lens which is a bit prone to flare which is why it comes with a deep lens hood. Well Alan try shielding your camera lens in similar circumstances to the ones you have already noticed cause the problem and report back.

It goes without saying that marks or any foreign matter on the lens surface will make the lens more susceptible to flare, as Robski explains so well, so keep the lens spotless (I find micro fibre cloths excellent). My understanding of 'orb' in this context is just a very specific type of flare so cleaning and shading should normally do the trick.

Problem
 

Thanks again to all who have replied to my problem

Here's another photo which I took after the one I started this thread with, there does not seem to be a problem on this photo. Does that mean the lens does not need cleaning. The camera is new I bought it a couple of weeks ago.
Regards Alan.

Even if the lens has a smear on it, say from a finger, it will not show up unless it is a bad smear if the light is from behind or to one side (as in this shot) and not catching the front lens element at an oblique angle. The best way to see if the lens needs cleaning is to look carefully at the surface from different angles. The fact that the camera is nearly new makes no difference as it only takes one careless moment to touch the lens with a finger! If you need to clean the lens first blow any particles off with a blower (not your breath as spittle could land on the lens and make matters worse) and then carefully wipe the lens with a micro fibre cloth starting at the centre of the lens moving with a circular motion to wards the outer part of the lens. i.e. a outward spiral. Don't overdo cleaning as you do not want to unnecessarily risk any scratches from dust not removed by the blower (I use the ''Rocket'' blower). I keep an eye on my lenses and clean only when necessary. A clean lens reduces the incidents of flare but does not stop it. Hope this helps.

As Mike has said looking at the front of the lens from different angles under a good light will clearly show up any dust cloud or finger prints on the front element. These will only show up on prints if a light source happens to be at the right angle to cause the flare.

Assuming that the lens is clean I've had a quick look at your gallery for any clues to the problem. I would say all except the church shot suffer from flare to some degree. The only difference would seem to be that the church was taken with the light from behind you and the others are against the light. I suspect this camera just does not fair well with against the light shots and I very much doubt that a lens hood will do much to solve the problem.

If you bought this camera from a local camera shop I would be inclined go back to them to discuss the problem and maybe they will let you exchange it.

I note that you seem to prefer to take shots of buildings. It is worth talking to the camera shop about the best camera lens for this style of photography.
Zoom lens on compacts are notorious for barrel and pincushion distortion at either end of the range which will be noticed more on building shots than the typical family group shot. A simple test is to take shots of a door frame at different zoom settings and see how they fair.

Reading Rob's comments I have to agree again that most of your shots in your gallery exhibit flare to a greater or larger extent so that camera or rather it's lens does seem prone. As for compacts giving barrel and pincushion distortion this is true (worse on some zoom lenses than others) but how much you notice it is a personal thing. Me, I do not notice it unless it is really bad and I do like a zoom lens on my compact! If you look at my gallery many of the pictures are taken on a zoom compact (each shot does tell you what the shot was taken with) and all the China ones are.