Finch585 Loc: Northern California

I don't like this image that I took at Multnomah Falls, WA with my Nikon D7000, 18-105mm kit lens for many reasons, I was just fooling around shooting prior to setting up the camera properly for the setting, but what's the green dot from? I took others without cleaning the lens in between and there's no green dot in those, so, i don't think it was dirt.

aldridgester

Solar flare, most likely, or UFO's

arphot Loc: Massachusetts

It is solar related. Sometimes when we take wide angle shots the sun reflects off the curve of the lens and creates these anomalies. Your lens (I noticed) is quite versatile and probably picked up the flare from taking the landscape shot (wide angle) including the just out of range sun. Why was it green? Probably the surrounding trees and other flora. My 2 cents worth :idea:

Randyb1969 Loc: Armpit of California

Looks like the thumb print of a leprechaun to me. Keep an eye out for that gold. :)

bruce668

It appears that your otherwise nice photo was shot with the sun just out of the frame. Sometimes you'll get a "flare" in the picture as the sun reflects off the perimeter of the various glass lenses within your lense. Try the same shot with the sun further from the frame and you'll be pleased with the results.

Turb0 Loc: San Antonio, Texas

Solar flare. Just as Bruce668 stated, could also come from reflection between the filters on the lens.

***** Multnomah Falls is in Oregon, across the Columbia River Gorge from Washington. *****

aaron Loc: brooklyn ny

that's lens flare; you are pointing your camera towards the light and sometimes, like now you got flare. next time, use a lens hood.

Hiskid.58 Loc: Erie, PA

There are times when I use my hand to block lens flare. Just hold you hand over the lens to block the suns rays from hitting the lens. You have to be careful when doing this that you don't get your hand in the frame also. You can see the lens flare disappear and your hand come into view in the viewfinder. Some people actually use lens flare creatively for dramatically showing the brightness of the sun, but it doesn't work with this shot for sure.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

You can know it's lens flare that occurred from sun because there are several circles, not just one. Each circle is where the flare happened on an internal glass surface, was bounced forward to another internal glass surface, which then bounced it back to another glass surface, and forward... on and on. Depending on the intensity of the sun coming in and the angle that it came in at, I've seen a flare with a series of sometimes 8, 10, or more circles. I'd say your green spot was caused by a coating on one of the internal glasses or possibly the outside of your external glass.

In movie desert scenes such as a western, they sometimes point into the sun for a shot on purpose to create a sense of intense heat, dryness, thirst, and being baked by sun that is unbearable. It may only be 60 degrees on the set but the flare and a bit of dust flying around and you have the impression of it being 120 and the lens is the eye of the character looking at the sun they must endure to survive. During the panning of the camera, you can watch the flare start at one or two circles and become a string of circular flares that are smaller but there's more of them.

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

+1 Exactly! The PROPER lens hood might have eliminated this. Also, a good circular polarizer may reduce solar flare as well.

See how white and washed out the sky is above the tree line? That's because your camera exposed for the dark stone and trees, leaving the sky overexposed. It's very hard to get a good balanced exposure when there's such a wide difference between the dark and light areas of your subject.