[drugal]

I find myself getting strange reflections of strong lights in some of my images

(see the blue lights on the banister in the picture attached below)

Will a polarizing filter and lens hood help with this? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

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Last edited by drugal; 02-14-2011 at 07:52 PM.

[Just1MoreDave]

The most frequent cause is a filter on the lens. I actually have no other theory, so I hope that's it.

The blue lights are much brighter than anything else in the shot - about 2 stops. To the camera sensor, that's a lot. The stray spots are more visible because of that wide brightness range in the shot.

[drugal]

Thank-you very much for the reply!

I bought a rocketfish UV filter to protect my lens from Best Buy, so I'm guessing it's an inferior filter.

As a kid, I was taught to always use a UV filter ... so the question is, in situations like this, should I take the filter off or should I just get a higher quality UV filter? If a better filter is the answer, what's a good one? A Hoya??

[JeffJS]

I would leave the UV off all together unless there is some environmental reason to use it. In Detroit (welcome from another 313 member) I doubt you are going to run into many sand storms for instance. If you want to add protection, get a hood. Infinitely better protection and far more useful.

[Kerrowdown]

I would leave the UV off all together unless there is some environmental reason to use it

Wot he said and to add, filters never, hood always.

[drugal]

I'll give removing the filter a try.