Lens Flare at Night

Hello everyone,
I have a 350D w/ kit lens, UV filter and lens hood. Recently, I took some shots alongside a busy street in my town at night. I wanted to capture a flourescent sign in the upper right of the shot and the blur of the passing cars through the middle of the pic. I used a tripod w/ the above set-up. I seemed to have captured some lens flare in the center of the black night sky section of the shot. It's a small, half-moon shaped yellow/gold spot. The info on the shot is as follows: F/5.6; shutter 1"6; 100 ISO; manual @ 25mm. Also, the WB was set to flourescent. Is this a case of a problems with the lights in the scene or any light off to the side of where I was shooting? The glass was clear as was the UV filter. With the inexpensive glass on the kit lense, is that a cause for such a problem? Will better glass take care of this? PS makes it pretty easy to take this glitch out. I know an answer is hard to decifer w/out the shot itself but it's too large to upload for this post. Thanks for any and all thoughts. Sincerely, Joe.

Take the filter off for starters.

I took shots with and w/out the UV filter, no real discernable difference.

My understanding of lens flare indicates it is light that is reflected between the elements of a lense so no difference between day or night, but my experience tells me it is usually caused by a fairly bright light source, and generally 30 to 40 degrees to the side or above, below.....I'm guessing there is a street light not far from the intended shot?

Can you post samples. When i was first shooting with my 350d and kit lens, i went out one night and forgot to take the UV filter off. I got terrible flare. but as soon as i removed it, my flare cleared up.

Yea, there were about 3 street lights. I thought they might be the problem so I turned the camera just enough to get one of them out of the shot.
I will definitely not use the UV when I try again.

Here's the pic, I hope it works...

vwjoe76 wrote in post #2269834
Here's the pic, I hope it works...

That's not flare, that's a fricken UFO:p

Just kiddin'

I had some strange flare a couple weeks ago while shooting a football game at night. I didn't have my UV filter yet. Since then, I put a good quality, HOYA PRO1 MC UV, on my lens. Last wee I shot at another night football game. With the filter, no flare.
Bottom line: Poor quality filter means poor flare reduction.

If you have a cheap filter, replace it. It may cost you more but the results speak for them selves.

I dont use UV filters if I can get away with it.

I only use them I at places like the beach..

I believe that the OP has mentioned that the photo was taken both with and without the UV filter attached, and that this had no bearing on the results. I'd suggest using a hood, but it appears that this flare is from the street light just to the left (and below) centre.

To the OP: if it were me, I'd try to reframe the photo slightly in the hopes of reducing the flare... you should be able to see this flare in the viewfinder, so try to eliminate it before you take the photo.

I think that flare is an internal reflection of the bright streetlight on the right of frame.

A better lens will reduce or eliminate this flare most probably.

In this instance it would be easy to paint this flare out if it annoys you in this shot.


Nice shot by the way.

Thank you all for your opinions. They're very helpful and much appreciated.

It could also be light reflecting off of the sensor back into the lens.