How to Avoid Lens Flare

Lens flare is part of the everyday photographer's life. No matter what you do to avoid it, sometimes getting the best picture during the day requires you to find ways around it. Snapping a perfect picture can be ruined by allowing light to morph into the lens. Lens flare occurs when light, from the sun or other source, enters the lens at an angle and aligns with the camera's digital sensor. It creates a polygon-type shape that forms around the shape of the lens itself. It can lower contrast and creates a photo artifact that is not easily avoided or changeable in photo editing software. By learning more about the artifact, you can avoid it when you are out and about taking pictures.

Lens flare can show itself in other ways than just an out of place shape. It can wash out a picture, and it can create an intense contrast in certain areas of a photo. Most digital cameras on the market come with a complex lens structure for higher quality pictures at any photography level. This makes lens flare a more common element in pictures among beginning photographers. By reflecting light through the lens at an odd angle, the lens shape projects the light back and forth until it reaches the sensor and is reflected back onto the picture itself. In most cases, small light sources will cause contrast in the area of the picture the light is produced from during the shot; in other cases, a polygonal-type shape in the picture means that light reflected off the lens aperture during the photo taking process.

Most camera lenses are coated in a rough form of anti-reflective gel to minimize the affects of a flare. However, this does not mean the threat it entirely gone. Depending on the light source, the artifacts produced can be intense and ruin a good photo. In other cases, you will avoid lens flare all together. Relying on this anti-reflective coating to save your pictures is never a good idea, and it is one mistake beginners make more often than not when learning how to take better pictures.

The sun, artificial lighting, the moon or car lights are just some of the sources of flare-inducing light. When staging pictures, you always want to be aware of what type of light is surrounding the area, particularly during the day. The sun in particular can be harder to predict just how it will affect your pictures, and by taking a few extra seconds to realign yourself and your shot, you will save yourself from the hassle of taking a poor picture that could have been avoided. Stray light often enters a picture regardless of what you do, and sometimes it can not be avoided, but you will want to do everything you can to make sure you are taking a clear, clean, crisp shot.

For more advanced photo takers, a lens hood can help reduce lens flare on many levels. It helps eliminate light sources from the angle of the lens. This hood uses a non-reflective inner surface so that light can not reflect back into the lens itself. While this can help in many ways, it is not foolproof either. Most lens hoods do not extend far enough to block out all light, and it is important to take the time to make sure you have aligned your shot properly before taking it just as if you were not using a lens hood in the first place. Digital SLR cameras in particular are vulnerable to lens flare more so than other types of cameras, because there lens was made to catch a wider range of angles that exposes the lens to more light sources in the process.

Petal lens hoods might be a good idea if you find artifacts to be a problem in many pictures. They block out more light than conventional lens hoods, because they take in the actual size and shape of your lens, and help block out light that might normally find a way around a traditional lens hood. This does create a problem that the angle in one direction will be greater than the other, but advanced photographers will know how to compensate for it. By shopping around for the right type of lens hood for your camera, and they make them for all makes and models, you will find the right way to take a picture and avoid lens flare artifacts on your pictures.

Lens hoods and lens filters are practical solutions for avoiding lens flare in most situations. When you invest in a high-end digital camera, adding these accessories are an essential part of the process to help you take better pictures. Nothing ruins a good occasion by discovering that memories you took during the event have been ruined by not taking the time to learn how to use your camera to the best of your ability. Many manufacturers sell the correct types of lens hoods and filters to use with your particular model; check with them to see what will work best and invest in taking better pictures today.