GH2 HELP ! Light reflections when shooting in the dark...
- Thread starter mezza
- Start date
Inprogress
Well-known member
Do you have any filters on? I noticed those stray light reflections when I have a ND filter on my lens. I think I might have noticed it once with out a filter - but I cannot confirm this.
Postmaster
Dark Side of the Camera
Same thing is going on, at the FS100. We call it green ghosts - getting worse with filters in front.
j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
Strong, point source lights, will produce this effect. Depending on the quality of the lens they will be more or less noticeable. Filters mounted on the front of the lens will give even more.
The reason is that while glass is 99.99% transmissive, there is a small amount of light 'reflected' back at each boundary. A lens is made up of several lens elements so there are reflections between each element.Coatings assist in minimizing the effect... but when shooting straight into a light source, depending on the angle of the source, and the paths, whether direct or reflective, and the relative brightness where the reflections occur in the image, one will see these effects.
Some people like these sorts of things for certain effects, especially with anamorphic lenses, and big time directors... Here's an example.
Look at the row of spot lights far behind the now famous actors. You will notice a horizontal smearing of the lights, as well as a reflection of the lights just above the 'actual' lights. Those reflections could be from a glossy ceiling.
Here's another example. The light source is in the top of the frame, just barely visible. But the lens flare is visible.
You can also get reflections from the 'sensor' onto the back element of the lens... are you using one the GH 'kit lenses'?
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j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
The Wife yells at me constantly about no 'uv' filter, which we use mostly as a 'protection' for the lens. The only lens we've destroyed, was one that was on her camera, she was giving a seminar, demonstrating shooting in a studio, put the camera down on a table, but it wasn't quite on the table... and the camera crashed to the floor lens first... busted the front element retaining ring... filter was useless in protection...
Anyway... the only real use for a UV filter is outdoors(*), and in the specific case where one is taking shots in sun or possibly 'cloudy' days where there's still high UV levels. Indoors, it does give some protection, but otherwise it may give more problems than it solves...
In doors there may be reasons to use filters, but then one does need to understand the problems with their use...
*Well unless you are shooting with 'sun' lamps in a tanning salon...