From the course: Pro Video Tips

Avoiding lens flare and wash out

From the course: Pro Video Tips

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

Avoiding lens flare and wash out

“

So I just told you a bunch of different ways we can use and incorporate backlight into our scenes. But what I didn't cover much, was some of the unwanted side effects and dangers of shooting backlit shots. And more important than that, I want to discuss, how to overcome them. So there are two related and potentially problematic issues that can come up when we're shooting a backlit shot. Because the light is now shining right in the direction of our lens, we may end up with lens flare. Now to be clear, lens flare is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just a question of whether it's something that's complementary. And appropriate to your shot. It's a flashy effect so concerts, sports, sci-fi, or other flashy or glamour subjects are typical candidates for a little cool lens flare, that creates some attention grabbing patterns, colors and movement in the frame. But for other genres and subject matter, it may come off as more of a distraction or a mistake. The goal is that we're in full control of whether or not our shot has lens flare. So the idea is that we're able to create a lens flare when we want it, but we're also able to avoid or get rid of it whenever we don't. First let's talk about how you get it. For starters you need a backlight. This can be the sun, a light you set up and maybe a light that just happens to be on location. The important thing, is that it comes from behind your subject. Lens flare is caused by stray light reflecting of the front lens element. You're also more likely to get lens flare with zoom lenses that have many glass elements as opposed to prime lenses which have less glass elements. To create lens flare, you simply line up your light or camera just right, so that the backlight is actually shining a little bit into the lens. By making slight adjustments in your camera angle. Until you find just the right lens flare sweet spot. You can get more subtle or more bold lens flares and make them fall across your frame in different patterns. The look of the lens flare is also going to vary from lens to lens. So I recommend that you experiment with different lenses, if lens flare is something you actually want to incorporate in your shooting. And one very big note when dealing with lens flare, is that you want to make sure that your lens is absolutely clean and spotless. Because the second the light shines directly into your camera, it will clearly show every single speck of dirt, dust or smudges on your lens. So your lens should always be clean. But it's doubly important for backlit shots and it's triply important when you're going for lens flare. Now using lens flare creatively is an ascetic choice, however the ugly cousin of lens flare that will rarely work for you ascetically or otherwise, is lens glare or washout. There is often a fine line between getting a cool lens flare and getting a nasty lens glare that just washes out your frame. With milky white light. This wash-out effect is caused by light reflecting off the inside of your lens elements back and forth. So if the light shining and reflecting your lens is a cause of lens flare and glare, then the easy cure is simply blocking that same light from entering and reflecting in the lens. There are a number of ways you can do this. On the high professional end, you can avoid lens flare by using a matte box, which is designed to hold filters but also shades the front of the lens from stray light. And, if a matte box is out of your budget, a French flag or using a lens hood will also help ward off unwanted flare. If you just have a short shot you need to get, you can often use any solid object. A flag, your script, or just your hand even to block the stray light from hitting your lens, but still maintain the cool back lighting you were going for your subject in the first place. Another factor that will help cut down on lens flare is shooting on lenses with anti-reflective coatings and being mindful when using external filters that also create the potential for more reflections in the front element. Higher quality lenses and filters are more likely to have anti-reflective coatings, so read the specs before you buy if this is a concern. The bottom line is, once you understand the root causes and remedies of lens flare, you can employ it at will to work for you creatively, or get it out of the way so you can get the backlit shots you want, every time you want it.

Contents