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Hye guys,

I posted a message of help last month about light beading in night photograghy shots, where you get streams of light from street lamps or other sources, creating beads of light across the image.
I saw alot of people hit the post but were unable to give any suggestions, I am just reposting to see if anyone has managed to come up with any solutions? Would maybe an ND filter help or something.
Any suggestions would be a great help I attached the image again to show you what I am talking about, you can see the beads of light streaming from the middle of the photo across the image to the lower left.

Thanks.

What lens are you using? That's clearly 'lens flare' and you get that normally through pointing the lens towards the sun, and getting flare off the front element of the lens. Not normally at night though. Have you tried a skylight filter? Kit lens lenses are usually more prone to flare also.

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Putting a filter in front could actually make the problem worse, as they tend to cause flare. Are you using a low-quality (eg. cheap) UV filter, because that's usually the first thing that causes flare.

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D40 - Nikon 18-135mm - Nikkor 50mm f/1,8 - SB-600 flash
Nikon Coolpix L3

AFAIK non-crap ones reduce flare.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

I've had this exact same thing happen to me before, even in night images.

I determined that the problem was the UV filter/protector I had on my lens. If you had any kind of filter on your lens, try taking it off and see if that solves your problem.

If you look at the image posted above, you'll notice that you're actually seeing a reflection of the lights, turned upside-down and backwards left-to-right. I had this problem with both of my Canon 50mm primes (f/1.4 & f/1.8 ), and when I removed the UV protectors from these lenses, this problem went away completely. It turns out that the light was actually reflecting off the surface of the 1st lens element, and then reflecting again off the inside of the filter before going back through the lens to the sensor.

I have used the same brand filters on my other lenses and I don't have this problem with those lenses, but I'm not sure why.

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Canon 40D
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM | EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | EF 50mm f/1.4 | 430EX Flash

New! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

...and too much other stuff to mention...

UV filters make it worse, a polarizer will reduce it.

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

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Would you use a polarizer at night?

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PhilipGoh.com

Who said I recommended it haha

Why not? No idea what it would look like, not go a CPL. I know it would darken by a stop or so, just let the exposure go a bit longer.

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

I suppose it would take away some of the reflections in the water (?) and kinda ruinening the mood of the shot? Not? I'm really not sure

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D40 - Nikon 18-135mm - Nikkor 50mm f/1,8 - SB-600 flash
Nikon Coolpix L3

'Lense Flare"! that was the word I was looking for to describe it. The name to describe it was right on the tip of my tongue, but for some reason i was drawing a blank.

I appologise for not being descriptive enough on what i was using at the time i took the shot.

I was using an A200 kit lense with a UV flter. A lot of you have mentioned that it is most likely cause by using the UV filter. Thanks for the suggestions, I will invest in a sky filter and try taking the shots again, I will try with and without the sky filter.

This shot was taken in my home city of Brisbane, Australia so i can easily go out and take them again.

Thanks for the suggetions, I will let you know how it went.

adam-lucas, replacing one filter with another will not necessarily solve this problem, unless the new filter is a pretty high-quality one. For most shots like this -- that is, at night -- I think the best solution is to simply remove the filter and then put it back on when you're done.

See the images below. I took these with my 50mm f/1.4 lens. All settings were exactly the same in both, except in the one of the right, I removed the UV protector from the lens.



Additionally, on a digital camera, a sky (UV Haze) filter will not provide you with a noticeably different effect than a plain old UV protector. This is because UV light does not affect digital camera sensors in the same way that it affects film. On the other hand, if by a "sky" filter, you mean a polarizing filter, a polarizing filter is very useful to have with a digital camera, but it will probably not eliminate the problem we're talking about in this thread, since light will still reflect off the inside of the filter (unless you get a really really high quality one).

Bottom line: for the occasional night shoot, simply remove your filter and then put it back on when you're done. There's usually not much that can happen to your lens while it's on a tripod in a quiet park...

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Canon 40D
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM | EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM | EF 50mm f/1.4 | 430EX Flash

New! EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

...and too much other stuff to mention...

I suggest closing your aperture to F11 or higher and see if the problem persists. And of course take all the fiters off. If you are shooting a night scene where one part is brighter than the others then taking picture at dusk, i. e. when the lights are already on but the sky not too dark yet, would be the best in my experince.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
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