Different Lens Coatings = Different Lens Flare

A few posts back I talked about the lens flare characteristics of different lenses, how when using the old, reliable Fuji S5600 I learned to shade the lens when shooting into the sun quadrant to keep the flare effect from occurring. This frame was captured with that camera’s later brother, the Fuji HS10, and here I was shooting toward the sun by default. I was high in the grandstand of the 2019 RAAF Edinburgh Air Show, and there was no shade at all. I remember shooting with this camera and the S5600 at the same time, both round my neck and being used for different subjects. I was eager to explore the HS10’s high telephoto range, as airshows are notorious for generating lots of pictures of bright skies with aeroplanes so far away and moving so fast they are mere dots, and I found I had plenty of reach with this one, without serious loss of smoothness in the image. Here I’m looking toward the assembly point where aircraft moved from the parking area to the runway. The Gloster Meteor classic jet fighter is frame against the fuel trucks, with a marshal alongside, radio in hand. It’s a closer angle on a frame up I had just done at a wider setting. There is no flare in the image (except around the actual reflection of the sun in the canopy) and I’m going to assume both a superior lens coating on this model, and some degree of shading—usually with my baseball cap. I remember being very busy working the pictures on that day (November 10^th, 2019, just before covid began to run rampage through the community.) Colour, contrast and sharpness were tweaked very slightly. Fuji HS10. Image by Mike.

New Camera, Old Subject

 

When trying out the characteristics if a new piece of kit, one often gravitates to well-known subjects so as to compare results, and I found myself doing just that on an early shoot trying out the camera of my new phone, the Xiaomi Poco M5. It has the highest resolution of any camera in the house, and the chip behaves very nicely under a wide range of conditions, including indirect and low-light. I found the resolution fails quickly at high telephoto values, but so long as I stay away from that much zoom the pictures are exceptionally crisp and clear, lending themselves to cropping well inside the image to pull subject from background as necessary. I went for a stroll in Adelaide’s Botanic Gardens on July 10^th, 2024, and the weather was very kind. This is a view of the tropical house, a Victorian structure for all kinds of exotic plant life that requires conditions never less than warm and steamy. Tweaks were just a fraction more contrast and colour. Xiaomi Poco M5. Image by Mike.

The Mighty Murray

Here’s a frame I captured on October 6^th, 2018—almost exactly six years ago. This is the River Murray photographed from an overlook at Tailem Bend, in the hour before sunset. Not quite “golden hour,” the toning of the evening was quite blue, but the majestic sweep of the river, framed in the gum trees, makes an appealing composition, especially against that great, complex skyscape. This seems to be before I got the trick through my head about shading the lens with my cap when shooting anywhere near the sun quadrant of the sky, thus the lens flare in the lower right. It’s endemic to the nature of lenses, but unless lens flare is the theme or object of an image, I must say I’m not a great fan of it in my images. But this is a worthwhile shot, and the lens flare is part f the story. Minor adjustments in Irfanview, including increasing gamma value to pull information out of the shadowed areas. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

 

Magic Hour in Yorkshire

I took this frame in the late afternoon/early evening of a day in November, 2007, from the window of a moving train on the Esk Valley line between Middlesbrough and Whitby. After many grey skies and soft exposures on my 2007 UK trip, the sun finally—momentarily—came out, and I shot as much as I could, The train windows were not the cleanest, and the internal lights reflected in the glass, so I was constantly trying to find an angle to both catch the scene and exclude reflections. This one has an almost painting-like feel: the softness of even the direct light as “golden hour” progresses—note the length of the tree shadow—and the inherent autumn sombreness combining to create an emotionally evocative image. I left Whitby the next morning, going up the coast to Sunderland, and the light and feel of the next batch of shots is completely different. “Magic hour” indeed! (Just a little contrast work, and one click sharp.) Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

A Grim Magnificence

November 2007 seems such a long time ago! I took this image in Welford Rd. Cemetery, Leicester, UK, across the road from Leicester University, where I was doing a fieldwork survey for my PhD, supervising senior students who were gaining fieldwork course credits by assisting me with the data collection. We had worked through the afternoon, and early evening was coming down by four o’clock or so. The lighting quality created such a painting-like feel, I couldn’t resist grabbing some scenic shots among the dry record images of the gravestones, and as evening progressed the skyscape over the ivy-grown monuments developed a very Gothic feel. Catching detail in the foreground was down to how the chip handled the conditions, and the old Fuji S5600 has always been very good in this respect. I featured one or two shots from my Leicester stopover many years ago, back in the first incarnation of this site. Contrast, gamma and colour were slightly adjusted in Irfanview, otherwise this is just how it looked on the day. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike

Small Harbour

Tour boats at moor, Endeavour Wharf, Whitby, England, November 17^th, 2006. The weather was overcast, as you’d expect so late in the year—note the Christmas decorations are up on the lamp posts. Conditions were not the sort that give you bright, sharp pictures, but I shot what presented itself and there was usually something of interest, if not of earth-shaking photographic merit. This was my first UK trip, to attend a conference at the University of Sunderland, and my first time on British soil in 36 years. I stayed three weeks or so and had a wonderful time, taking 1481 frames in the process. This is not a lot by some standards, I know! Contrast, brightness and colour were adjusted in Irfanview. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Evening Storm

I captured this frame two years and one day ago—September 11^th, 2022. A simple shot, looking west over the back garden hedges, of a storm front moving up from the gulf. This is one of those occasions when nature presents you with a spectacle and says “catch me!” I took a long series of frames that evening, but this one has a strange purple hue to the light that is so effective, so unusual. I could have processed it out, but that’s what the evening looked like, and that’s what I'm presenting. A tiny touch of contrast enhancement was the only effect applied. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The Goddess and the Australian Sky

This is the goddess Guan Yin, the 18-metre statue at the Nan Hai Pu Tuo Buddhist Temple at Sellicks Hill, overlooking the Gulf St Vincent. It’s been a landmark for many years (begUn 2011), and construction of the complex is continuing. This frame was taken on April 7^th, 2018, during an expedition down to Victor Harbor and back via Mt Alma, and the weather could not have been more perfect. This shot was not enhanced at all, this is just as it came from the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

Reaching for Distance

This shot was an experiment with the high-end of the telephoto range of the camera I was working out at the time. It’s a view from Crowsnest Lookout, on the hills above Victor Harbor and the south coast, with the town of  Middleton (IIRC) in the foreground, taken on April 13th, 2019. That’s the Southern Ocean, with the Coorong barrier beach and Lake Alexandrina in the background. We were into ‘golden hour,’ the sun declining rapidly off to the left. Minor adjustments were made in IrfanView. Fuji FinePix S6500. Image by Mike.

 

Gulls on Painted Water

I love shooting reflections, and sometimes, when you close in on a reflective surface to exclude the ‘real world’ source material of the reflection, the result can become abstract art. Here are seagulls on the placid waters of Whitby harbour, Yorkshire, England, photographed on Sunday, November 7^th, 2010. I had taken a long stroll around town in the afternoon, visited the abbey on the headland, and would soon be shooting the lights after dark, but here the ambient conditions were suspended near the end of day, and the waters picked up this artsy look—almost like an illustration coloured in. Minor-adjustments to contrast and colour only. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Down the Tube to Lanantarn

Yes, I’m a sucker for vanishing point symmetry, it catches my eye and I’ll shoot it whenever I find it! This is the Heathrow Express terminal deep under Heathrow Airport, at 5.33 and 54 seconds (by the electronic signage) on the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. My plane had just got into Blighty, Customs was a quick process (I remember we were the very first plane load fronting up to the desks for the day!) and I was eastbound for London Town with my luggage. I travelled with the camera round my neck and shot as I went, and all sorts of interesting things appear as one goes. The light was low, of course, so non-moving subjects were preferred (cameras were less fancy in those days, and soaring ISO speeds were a thing of the future). Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Deceptive Woods

Why deceptive? This image excludes anything man-made: one would be forgiven for thinking I was in the depths of a forest when I took this frame, and that’s somewhat true, as the whole region is heavily forested. But there was a town’s main street just behind me. These trees are above the carpark at Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills, where a walking trail begins, leading a few kilometres to Mylor. The main road, carrying the weight of through-traffic, is below and behind my POV; sun through trees is a favourite theme and composition of mine. This frame was captured on the 15^th of April, 2017. Some minor adjustments were made: colour was increased a little, and gamma correction was used to pull out mid-tone detail from the otherwise harsh contrast. Image by Mike.