Lens Flare is Lame

It's funny how the mind can forget things. All the years I've done ground photography, lens flare has always been a consideration. With large format photography, especially, I've always been conscious of where the sun is, whether it can shine on my lens, and how I can keep that from happening.

So why I forgot all that when I hung my camera on my kite line yesterday, I'll never know. Granted, I was shooting outside my comfort zone. But photography is photography. The location of the camera doesn't change that.

Most of my KAP has been done near noon. This isn't a conscious choice of time or light, it's simply when I get to fly. It's not the best time of day to be doing photography, but it does simplify a number of decisions. Exposure is almost always sunny-16, and when I use a polarizer I always know where the sun is, so I can use a fixed rotation.

Yesterday I shot in late afternoon light over water with a partly-cloudy sky. I opted not to use the polarizer for fear of cutting out too much light. I also opted to put a UV blocking filter on the end of my camera's lens barrel to try to keep stray sea spray and sand from hitting my optics. The combination was disastrous. Every shot came out with lens flare, blown out skies, washed out mid-tones, and every other sin of the inexperienced photographer.

Gaaah!

Today, instead of rushing out to correct my mistake, I decided to spend a little time taking care of my long list of nagging complaints with my rig, and to try to think through ways to keep from repeating my experience of yesterday.

For starters I took the filter adapter barrel off my camera and spray painted the inside with flat black paint. Why anyone would make a piece of optical equipment with bright, shiny surfaces near an optical path, I have no idea. But that's what they did. Now my adapter barrel is fairly un-reflective on the inside.

Next, I took care of some issues that have been bugging me for a while. My 1/4-20 mounting screw is now tethered to my rig. No more dropping my mounting screw into loose a`a lava, only to see it disappear into the rock pile! Likewise I cleaned up my shutter servo mount, simultaneously making for better alignment with the shutter button and shaving off a little weight. Finally, I slotted the mounting hole for my camera, so I can get it a little more snug against the bracket. No more wobbly camera!

But back to the lens flare, what I really need is a way to get a large(ish) lens hood on my camera. The problem is everything that goes on my KAP rig can act like a sail and catch the wind. A lens hood is essentially a giant sail, mounted far out from the axis of rotation. It's going to cause instabilities in the rig!

So for now I don't really have a good solution on lens flare except to fly with no filter and hope. Meanwhile I've taken the UV filter out of my bag, leaving only the polarizer and the Hoya R72 IR filter I use for ground photography.

But the rig is looking a lot better. I hope I can get out this afternoon and give it another go.

Tom