Flare/halo in night photos

[nthearle]

I've been experimenting with my Electro 35GT and 800 rated Tri-X for some night shots. I seem to get a lot of flare (or halo ?) from street lights. I'm wondering if I'd see less if I removed the skylight filter which normally lives on the lens for protection, even though it looks clean and not scratched. The attached file is a lousy photo, but a good example of the problem I get.

 

[lilmsmaggie]

Generally speaking, you wouldn't use a filter for night photography. However, I don't think in this case the filter is the problem. I would suspect too wide of an aperture especially when there is a light source in the scene. To minimize this, you need to stop-down to a smaller aperture, e.g. f16 which would create more of a star-burst effect. Also, positioning yourself so that the light is not directly on the same axis as the lens (off to the side), would help as well.

If you think you want to do more shooting at night and low light, I suggest reading Andrew Sanderson's book -- Night Photography:

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Photography-Andrew-Sanderson/dp/0817450076

You may also want to visit his web site:

http://www.andrewsanderson.com

His book goes into different films and exposure times for night photography and discusses reciprocity failure.

I was able to get very good results following his tables.

And since he's in your neck of the woods, you might want to take a workshop from him as well.

You can also find him on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-Sanderson-Tribute-Page/198909331511


Good luck!