Dark Photography School

Sooner or later, you are going to run in to lens flare when doing urban night photography. Frequently you will want to capture a building, fixture, or other item that is inconveniently located near a street light. While there are ways to control it, it usually isn’t possible to eliminate it altogether, depending on how close you are to the light source and how much of it is in the composition.

EXIF: 100 ISO, 30 sec., f/13, 17mm focal length, flash off

EXIF: 400 ISO, 0.7 sec., f/4, 17mm focal length, flash off

The first photo illustrates a case of very bad flare. It was a very long exposure, which meant the very small aperture. A small aperture will focus light as it goes toward the sensor from the lens, and will cause the light ray to bounce around within the camera. This causes multiple flares, sometimes in different colors and usually in the shape of a hexagon. This hexogonal shape is the result of the lens diaphram. The number of sides in the polygon is determined by the number of blades in the diaphragm itself.

To reduce the number of flares, try the following:

• move the iso to 400 or higher
• reduce the shutter speed/increase the aperture
• compose the frame further away from the light source
• use a large lens hood

EXIF: 400 ISO, 10 sec., f/13, 17mm focal length, flash off

EXIF: 800 ISO, 0.7 sec., f/4.5, 17mm focal length, flash off

By simply upping the iso and reducing the shutter speed, I was able to limit the lens flare to a small blob to the left side of the composition.