Wildlife Photography across the Water: Lens Flare

Thursday 23 September 2010

Lens Flare

I mentioned in my last blog that i suffered from Lens flare when taking shots of the Smoky Mountains with the sun high in the image, The flare is really bad in the images taken in portrait mode and not quite as bad as those taken in landscape mode, To me this indicates a problem with the lens hood as it has cut aways at the sides when i landscape mode, I tried holding my hands up and out over the lens but it didn't really help, The lens in question is the new 70-200F 2.8 VR which has the nano crystal coating to help with contrast and stop flare, But in this situation it didn't work and neither did the guy next to me who was using Canon gear and was moaning of the flare he was also getting, Just goes to show that nothing is perfect even when using the latest and greatest gear and that faced with this situation either take a shot without the sun present in the image or wait until the sun dropped and the power had gone out of it, I did both and was quite happy with what i ended up with, One problem with using filters is that they can cause flare with the light bouncing around in between the glass elements, I did remove the ND Grad but it didn't seem to make any difference, Sometimes you just have to try and work around problems and thank god again for digital as you can imagine getting a load of film through all with flare on

Dave

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.