What is causing this?

S

Set_Nights

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(Disclaimer: please ignore how bad these photos are, they were the only examples I could find that I hadn't deleted yet!) I was wondering if anyone could tell me what is causing these light speckles to appear on my photos? It only ever happens in very low light when I'm not using a flash. Is it a reflection off the glass of the lens or something :|? How is it prevented? A polarising filter maybe?

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Well that your problem, your getting a reflection on the filter. Next time you try this type of shoot, just remover the filter and the problem will be gone.

Ian
 
It's lens flare. It's normally caused by the light reflecting back off the front of the lens onto the filter.

Can be prevented by either removing the filter or getting an expensive one which is multicoated on each side.

You can get flare from the reflections of internal lens elements, it's less often though.
 
It's light reflected off the sensor, and then bouncing back off the rear of the filter. Which is why you can't see it in the viewfinder. You can see it in live view though.

Even the very best multi-coated filters do it in situations like that - bright lights against dark background, like street scenes, car headlights, sunsets etc. Throw away the filter, or at least only use it when there is a real danger of something damaging the lens. It does nothing except degrade image quality - sometimes a lot!
 
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Thank you all :) I shall take the filter off next time I want to take shots in these sorts of conditions. Not going to go quite as far as throwing it away though as someone suggested :p, it does have it's uses!
 
Set_Nights said:
Thank you all :) I shall take the filter off next time I want to take shots in these sorts of conditions. Not going to go quite as far as throwing it away though as someone suggested :p, it does have it's uses!
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Yeah it can be used to cause flare in situations like this ;)
 
lensflair said:
Yeah it can be used to cause flare in situations like this ;)
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:P. They're useful when you're a clutz like me and bash your camera everywhere! I remember there was this one time I was climbing up a rocky hill face on my hands with my camera around my neck and bashing off the rocks. When I got to the top I realised the lens cap had fallen off and I almost wee'd myself at the thought of the state my lens surface would be in! Thankfully if was perfectly fine though and I've had a filter on it ever since!
 
Set_Nights said:
Thank you all :) I shall take the filter off next time I want to take shots in these sorts of conditions. Not going to go quite as far as throwing it away though as someone suggested
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But those reflections happen all the time, not just in low light shots. They may not be so obvious, bu they're still there - lowering contrast across the whole image.

Still, some people are willing to put up with that in the belief that they're 'protecting' their lens in some way.
 
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