**EVERYONE**Just took some pics of the sun.....wierd, page 7

Originally posted by shauny
All i was looking for was someone in the know to say "this is lense flare"

Can i just add however. the pictures I have taken, I have seen before, on videos and all over the net.

My son is a graphics chap, and he said no to lense flair.

OK well we confirmed that it lens flare, right? By the way what is needed is expertise in optics, not graphics, as it's not a graphics effect, it's an optical effect. It can also be different with different cameras as it depends on the number of elements in the lens, type of lens (zoom, or fixed?), how the lens is constructed, the quality of the lens, the types of coating used on the lens material, the type of lens material itself, filters used, exposure settings, and other factors. Here is an illustration of how lens flare happens in a lens with 5 optical "elements":

toothwalker.org...

Figure 1. Lens flare caused by an oblique light source.

See the red line? This is an unwanted reflection from the sun that hits the front lens element, reflects off one side of the lens, reflects off the other side of the lens, and back to the camera as shown. This illustration is showing how such flares can be avoided if the sun is off to the side by using a lens hood, which will block the sun coming in from the top.

Now what happens when you aim the camera directly at the sun, instead of the sun being off to the side, like in this illustration?

You can get reflections from ALL the optical elements in the lens, instead of just the front element. And because the sun is so bright, those reflections can also bounce around in the other elements on their way to the image sensor. I think you should show this illustration to your son so he understands the origin of flares and hopefully he can see why whether you look at a negative or not is irrelevant, this has nothing to do with negative versus positive images. It's all about optics with a bright light source.

Originally posted by shauny
And yes, I just want people to say "its this, or that"
I personally dont think its a camera issue (flare), or a sundog.
I have seen them with the naked eye, and seen TONS of pictures of almost the exact same thing.

Other pictures on the net, like this one:
www.shatters.net...

e.g. With the exception of the obvious lens flares, here's about how my eyes perceive the sun

He even notes the exception that the flares seen in the image aren't seen with the eye, but if people are seeing spots next to the sun when they look at the sun, probably what they are seeing are spots from temporarily, or unfortunately sometimes permanently burned retinas. You shouldn't look at the sun with your naked eye, I've tried my welder's mask and that's supposed to be a lot safer than the naked eye for viewing the sun. But I still like the oatmeal container because you can not only view the sun with that but get a pretty good enlargement of the image, and there's no lens flare when you do that because with a pinhole, there's no "lens" because the pinhole itself acts as the "lens". If you've got money to spend you can get serious solar imaging equipment.

As for my son, he is a genius with cameras and understands them more than I. He says you cant get flair in negative. So I take his word for it..

I'm sure your son is a wonderful person. However you should research it yourself instead of taking his word for it, or maybe you are misunderstanding what he's saying if he really is an expert. To say you can't get (fill in the blank) in a negative is an absurd statement, no matter what you put in the blank, flare or anything else. A negative is just a color inverted image of the original image so whatever is in the original will also appear in the negative, with the colors inverted.

Thanks again.
And please, lets not dismis this as sundogs or camera tricks just yet.
There is WAY to much out there to say "no"

How does the fact that there are lots of other images out there, confirm anything other than lens flare is a common effect, which of course, it is?

Originally posted by Zeus2573

"I strongly advise against drinking the Kool-aid".

Why would you not want to drink the Kool-aid? Its delicious. Tell you what, I will even let you choose your own flavor.

Thanks, I thought you might be offering me some kool-aid at some point, but I didn't expect you to let me choose my favorite flavor, thanks for that!

Actually I like Kool-aid if I drink it at home. But when they serve it at those meetings, it's the additives they put in that can have undesirable effects. Well, some of the meeting attendees may desire those other effects, but I don't, I prefer my heart beating at some rate other than zero.

[edit on 23-3-2010 by Arbitrageur]