Sun and/or Lens Glare/Halo Removal??

Erinlhoward · Nov 8, 2015

Hello,
My friend asked me to take some family pictures for her....I am not a professional...the past few yrs I have just been trying to learn more about using my Canon Rebel XS properly. Anyway, I am really happy with how the pictures came out, but unfortunately the pictures seem to have this ring or halo on them that I did NOT see while I was taking the pictures (not even sure what this is technically called)....I have PSE 11 and am fairly comfortable using it for editing, but I don't know how to remove this ring from the pictures...can anyone help me out with this?? Thanks so much!! Erin

Designer · Nov 8, 2015

Hey, welcome!

I call it lens flare. It happens when the front of your lens is in the sun. A lens shade (like a tube) will shade the front of your lens to mitigate that in the future.

As to getting it off, I'm not sure how, as I've not tried.

Let's hope someone else can help you.

KmH · Nov 8, 2015

Yep. It is called lens flare.
Lens flare is a reflection inside the lens of a bright light source near or in the image frame, like the Sun.

A lens hood can mitigate lens flare. Holding your hand, a hat, a magazine, or anything else between the bright light source and the front of your lens also mitigates lens flare.
Filters screwed onto the front of a lens add an air gap that can be another place for lens flare to cause problems.

It will be almost impossible to 'fix' the lens flare in the photos you posted.
The flare can be lessened, but it's likely you'll make the photo worse rather than better.

When shooting people back or side lit it usually works better if flash or reflected light is added for fill and to balance the back/side light. Ideally, your subjects will be 1 to 2 stops brighter than the background, but not the back or side light, so they are well separated (pop) from the background.

yaopey · Nov 9, 2015

Hi Erin, the lens flare is covering at least half of the photo (the left half). However, the most obvious part is the thick bright line that cuts across the middle. Potentially that thick line could be lightened/painted to make it less obvious. I'll see what I can do later on today =)

Derrel · Nov 9, 2015

A couple of weeks ago we had a thread titled, "What is wrong with these photos?" or "What went wrong with these photos?" The OP in that thread also used the Canon 50mm f/1.8 EF-II lens, and shot it toward a back-lighted young woman posed sitting on the side of a large community fountain. And like your family photos, the "Nifty Fifty" flared pretty strongly. Your photos show something that a Nifty Fifty shooter must always watch out for whenever shooting toward a bright light source: unwanted lens flaring. That particular lens model is known for flaring pretty badly when shot toward the light, so it's always a good idea to use a lens hood with it whenever shooting toward a bright light source. It pays to devote extra-special attention to what the lens is recording whenever shooting toward a bright light source, to make absolutely sure that the lens is not flaring the shots.