Techniques to avoid lens flare

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Aidan Mincher
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I was just wondering what techniques people use to avoid lens flare during sunsets? I sometime manage to avoid it or at least minimise it but it's more chance than by design. I've tried various things like not opening the lens fully, ensuring the glass is clean, not using filters but I find I leave a location thinking I've got something nice only to find lens flare.
 
Some lenses just flare more than others, if your lucky and its just the small dots of colour type then you can clone out in post. Larger, more complex flare spots will require more work.
 
simonblue said:
Len hood ? :)
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A lens hood is only useful if the sun is off to the side, outside the shot.
If you are shooting directly at, or have the sun included in the picture, a hood will have no effect.

Generally speaking, the more expensive the lens, the more resistance to flare.
Also, prime lenses, with fewer elements are often more flare resistant than zooms, which tend to have more pieces of glass in them.
 
If you point your lens at the sun, its pretty well inevitable. Flare is stray light bouncing around on the glass elements within your lens.
 
You don't necessarily get flare if you include the sun in the shot - it depends on the lens.
Here's a particularly testing example, where the sun is included twice (once in the sky and once as a reflection).
This was taken with the Canon 8-15mm Fisheye zoom, deliberately to test for flare - there isn't any - and there has been no editing of the image to remove anything.

Stowe by Brian Gibson, on Flickr
 
I struggle with this too, like what has already been said. All you can do is try to minimise it by keeping lenses and filters clean, use a lens hood or shade the front of your lens. Try not to shoot directly at the sun or if you do try to defuse it with clouds or trees or something like that. The sun is also usually Weaker when it's lower in the sky so waiting till then might be best option.
 
Hotshots said:
I struggle with this too, like what has already been said. All you can do is try to minimise it by keeping lenses and filters clean, use a lens hood or shade the front of your lens. Try not to shoot directly at the sun or if you do try to defuse it with clouds or trees or something like that. The sun is also usually Weaker when it's lower in the sky so waiting till then might be best option.
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But on the other hand, if it's lower in the sky then it's even more likely to be shining into the lens.
A lens hood is only of use when the sun is shining obliquely across the lens, it's of no help if you are shooting directly at the sun, since there is nothing to shade.
One rule for this sort of situation is to never use any kind of filter.

The OP specifically mentions shooting sunsets, but I cannot recall any time I've suffered noticeable flare when shooting a sunset, although I never use any additional filters on my Canon "L" series lenses.
 
One of the best tips I ever got (cheers to Richard Hurst http://richardhurstphotography.co.uk/ ) was to take two shots. One as normal with the flair/sun and a second with your thumb over the sun. You can then fix the problem back in PS.

Little bit of faffing I admit, and not for everyone, but for my workflow its more than fine.
 
Mattyd said:
One of the best tips I ever got (cheers to Richard Hurst http://richardhurstphotography.co.uk/ ) was to take two shots. One as normal with the flair/sun and a second with your thumb over the sun. You can then fix the problem back in PS.

Little bit of faffing I admit, and not for everyone, but for my workflow its more than fine.
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Interesting idea. Will give that a try.
 
As an alternative to the 'thumb use', a plastic cocktail stirrer is good. No doubt there's a marketing idea for a specialised flare removal tool there somewhere :f
 
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