What the **** is this in my picture!?!?!?

[Vicelord John]

Is my equipment messed up!?

D90 with 18-55VR kit lens at 10 second exposure. I took a lot of pictures last night and only saw it on this pic. However, I saw it on a number of them the night before last. Is something messed up? or is it some kind of crap bouncing off of the combo of water and light? The other night when I saw them there was also water and lights.

THANK YOU for replying im kind of freaking out about this right now. I don't have money for repairs!

 

[Overread]

Light reflections is my bet, called lens flare - these can occur within a lens itself when you have a strong light source. They can also be caused or exagerated by using a filter on the lens when you shoot.

 

[Invictus]

lens flare x2, it'll happen at night with very fluorescent lights.

 

[Rekd]

Lens flair. Light bounces around inside the lens before it gets to the sensor.

Yeah, it can be very annoying, as you can see here...



In this example it can be easily cloned out. You can use filters and/or hoods to try to reduce it, but I've heard the best solution is better glass.

 

[Battou]

What is happening is the light from the strong light source is literally bouncing off the individual elements inside the lens creating the reflection Overread outlined.

 

[KmH]

The bouncing happens in air gaps inside the lens, not between lens elements that touch, which is why the effect is worsened by having a filter on the front of a lens as it adds an additional air gap.

 

[Vicelord John]

awesome thanks everyone! I had a feeling that it may be light related but I'm still enough of a n00b that I wasn't sure.

 

[percent20]

Looks like a UFO to me

Any reason why it is a white dot in one spot and a blue line in another? that seems a bit odd or is it just how it is reflecting?

 

[ignite-me]

What is happening is the light from the strong light source is literally bouncing off the individual elements inside the lens creating the reflection Overread outlined.

this one.

 

[spudgunr]

Looks like a UFO to me

Any reason why it is a white dot in one spot and a blue line in another? that seems a bit odd or is it just how it is reflecting?

Look at the above picture. JUST above the lights it left a string of blue dots. Different angles will put different artifacts in different locations.

 

[Muffinabus]

That's happened to me before, I was going crazy trying to figure out what this was:

In the sky, above the buildings.

This picture is what it should have looked like:

Took me a while to figure out it was the fountain.

 

[gwilson92]

i actually think the lens flare can be a cool artistic tool if used right, i think it works in the motorcycle picture

 

[Moonb007]

Lens flare...unless you are a ghost under...then its the dead trying to communicate to you through your work.