Ideas to reduce lens flare.

Does anyone know of any sort of filter or whatnot that will reduce or eliminate lens flare with a wide angle lens?

I am filming BMX using primarily .25x and .5x wide angle lenses. Outdoor shooting is not much of an issue to avoid the sun, and the occasional flare looks nice with outdoor shooting. But indoors, with numerous lights it becomes too noisy.

Example, click to enlarge:

Hi Jerry...

Just in case you need a second opinion, Dr. John is absolutely right (as he always is).

I first read your post via email rather than here on the board, so I didn't see the picture. Of course I thought "All he needs is a matte box with French flags, eyebrows and sides." But after seeing the picture, nope. As John said, as long as the troublesome light sources are visible within the frame there's really nothing that can be done about the flares.

Depending on the capability of your equipment, shooting with prime lenses rather than your video zoom lens could reduce the complexity of the flares (because primes have many fewer elements in them than a zoom) but they would still be there, just different. Using the wide-angle adapter (which I imagine is a screw-on front-of-the-lens adapter) actualy adds to the complexity of the flares because it is adding lens elements.

The vertical smears?... yes, as John said, a higher-end camera will eliminate some (maybe most, sometimes all) of that, but with your present equipment that just "comes with the territory," unfortunately.


T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

Of course a "star filter" will make them stars instead of lines.

JS

The gist was to correct the lights at the camera for freedom in angle.

In one situation I may be following a person shooting while riding my bike on the ramps. Another they may be 8+ feet in the air. Lastly top down angles are very undramatic in most clips. The angle can make a simple stunt look huge, or a huge stunt look easy.

Hey Thanks for the great ideas to shift focus from the refracted lights and clean up the scene.

So would a 4 or 6 point star filter refract the light enough before it hits the CCD that it would prevent over saturation and subsequently the creation of the vertical lines?

In the image as a whole will bright stars direct focus away from the subject? Thankfully the subject matter is strong.

I found some 37mm mount 4 and 6 star filters for somewhere around 20 bucks a pop. Think I will have to play around and see how it looks playing through Vegas at 1 fps. Time for a new computer.

Thankfully the filters are not crazy expensive. But it does sound worth trying out. That example is the worst I could find. And the comments in this post have been really helpful in giving me other things to watch out for. Most of the clips I took at that skatepark, the subjects are not as back lit.

Most places are not as brightly lit as that place. So something somewhat cheesy, like a star filter, will only make up a small portion of a larger project. My biggest battle, overall, is poor lighting and trying to even up outdoor and indoor shots. And good shots from this skatepark should make nice segue's between darker indoor shots and brighter outdoor shots.

I've made a few shorts before, but on old low end equipment. Moving up to a camera that is decent. That is really bringing in a lot more clarity, and obstacles of its own regard.

I am so glad I started this thread, you people have been a great help and inspiration.