Joon wrote:
Hi, all. I took some photos tonight and a bunch came out with a glare effect - I don't know what else to call it - that I've never seen before. It's a Canon 70D with a 40mm lens. I'm attaching two examples of unedited shots... shows up in upper middle part. Can you take a look and tell me what's happening? Many thanks for any help you can give.
BIll is right. This is a form of lense flair or ghosting. It is brought on by the brighter lights. The group of headlights at the bottom of the first picture is inverted, located 180 degrees through the center of the lense from the source, and the same distance from the center of the lense as the the source. The three light sources around the traffic light to the left and slightly up from the car headlights are "ghosted" to the right and slightly down from the reflected headlights at the top. Not that common a problem and filters will not help the situation and can make it worst. Usually occurs with a high contrast photo involving a dark background and a very specular light source.