Remove flare and unwanted backlighting from night sky. How-to and critique request

[todd7500]

Hi!

I have a series like this. It was not the best way to shoot, in fact this was my first outing with the D7500. But that doesn't make a difference because no matter what I shot, I would have had the same conditions.
I wanted to stop the action so I needed a high shutter speed, 500th might have been to slow. In fact when I do it again, I will try at 1000th. At a 500th the ISO is at 10,000! this lens is wide open at f4, so I know there is noise.

I was close, about 20 feet from the horse and rider as they turned on the barrel so I didn't want to use flash to spook them
There was lighting on all sides of the arena so I couldn't find a position without shooting into the lights. If I had permission, I would have sat on top of the fence rather than shooting thru the rails. (Although part of the beauty is the low angle)

I have the RAWs and JPEG files so I can work on them. I know the focus is a little soft but given the speed of the object and the shutter speed its acceptable, but I can do a little in post.

What I would like to do is to get the background sky to go more to black and reduce or remove the size of the flares from my lens and the arena lights. I think I can clone out some of the trash from the background (like the cranes, light poles and power lines).

These are SOOC so I haven't cropped of recomposed them.

Please let me know if I need to post them in some other way to allow you all to review them properly (I don't use any photo hosting but can send them)

I am not asking you to do the work, just show me how, if that's possible.

Thanks in advance

TW

 

[480sparky]

Take the filter off the lens.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I think if you try and remove any of the backlight you are only going to make things worse. They lights and backlights don't bother me at all. It might actually add to it a bit. The flare I could live without but trying to Photoshop it out will probably only make it look worse.
Live with it.

 

[todd7500]

Take the filter off the lens.

So... some of this is the result of having a U/V filter? If that's the case I will remove it
I have always kept one on for protection. In this case there was a fair amount of dirt hitting me. Lately I have been reading and seeing the videos that say they U/V fillers might not be all that much protection and if they are, as you indicate, giving me this much flare, they are going to be removed.

 

[hark]

If you are shooting into the lights, the light will bounce around inside your lens. Sometimes the design of a lens will play into whether there is more or less flare due to the number of elements inside (and the overall design of a lens). Try removing the filter for one photo then take a second photo shooting into the same direction (even if you don't have a subject in the same place). The idea is to compare the images and see if removing the filter makes a difference. I've found out with some of my lenses that light flare exists no matter whether there is a filter on the lens or not. I just experienced the same thing yesterday when shooting into the sun during the day. Removing the filter didn't reduce the flare.

The flare spots don't bother me. As I just mentioned, there are times when they do happen. BUT if you remove the lights from the images, then the flare spots will look unnatural if you don't remove them, too. Can you upload the 2nd photo in NEF to a Dropbox account and let some of us play around with it? We might be able to show you some options on how the photos would look if removing the lights and spots.

Sometimes what I've experienced is the larger the aperture that is used, the larger the flare spots tend to be. Since your ISO is already high, and also because you really do need a high shutter speed, your aperture will be larger. I wouldn't change the settings to compensate. Either remove the flares or leave them alone.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

So... some of this is the result of having a U/V filter? If that's the case I will remove it.

My first question is, were you using a lens hood? While the filter is a likely culprit, as Hark points out we can't know for certain had you not had the filter on that your shots would be flare-free.

....

I have always kept one on for protection. In this case there was a fair amount of dirt hitting me. Lately I have been reading and seeing the videos that say they U/V fillers might not be all that much protection and if they are, as you indicate, giving me this much flare, they are going to be removed.

If you want a protective filter look into the Hoya HD Protector filters.

 

[Moab Man]

I have always kept one on for protection. In this case there was a fair amount of dirt hitting me.

This is exactly the reason to have the UV filter on, A FAIR AMOUNT OF DIRT HITTING ME. You don't want that hitting the coatings on the end of you lens. If you were shooting professionally and someone else is footing the bill for your lenses then by all means, tear that glass up.

I also suspect that the flares will still be there regardless of the filter because you are shooting up into the lights. You can correct this by raising yourself up, which will correct for some, if not all of the flare, but you won't have the "heroic" angle.

 

[SHAkers718]

What I would like to do is to get the background sky to go more to black and reduce or remove the size of the flares from my lens and the arena lights. I think I can clone out some of the trash from the background (like the cranes, light poles and power lines).

I don't know if this would help at all, but the D500, and I would guess the D7500 as well, has 4 metering modes: Matrix, Center-weighted, Spot and Highlight-weighted (looks like Spot with an Asterisk).

"Highlight-weighted: Camera assigns greatest weight to highlights. Use to reduce loss of detail in highlights, for example when photographing spotlit performers on-stage."

I haven't tried it but I wonder if that would help keep the background dark. A smaller aperture also seems to have that effect but then you'll need a slower shutter unless bumping ISO even more.

 

[todd7500]

My first question is, were you using a lens hood? While the filter is a likely culprit, as Hark points out we can't know for certain had you not had the filter on that your shots would be flare-free.....

If you want a protective filter look into the Hoya HD Protector filters.

As I remember, I did have the hood on. I need to more diligent about keeping the hood on and keeping notes about such things.
Thanks for the tip on the Hoya HD Protector

I realize now that shooting down instead of up and into the lights would have reduced the flare. I guess I got a little carried away with the angle. It looked pretty dramatic. Live and learn!

I will also look into Highlight Weighted Metering.

In fact, many thanks to all who have offered suggestions.

 

[Woodyg3]

I think the shots looks just fine with the lens flare. If it really bugs you, you could try to clone it out with your PP software. Just cropping in on the subject in the last picture could cut the flare out of the picture, as well.

I like the low angle on these shots, it does make for a more dramatic presentation.

After you have completed your post processing, please show us the final results. I have done a lot of sports photography through the years, but have yet to shoot barrel racing. It's on my bucket list, for sure.

 

[Stoshowicz]

Frankly , your low angle , which is nifty ,fortunately , also puts your lens flare up against the sky, why don't you just clone , paint or heal , all that away?
if you can do it that way, instead of making the black parts too dark , you can drop that contrast so we can see the riders faces and so forth. Or if you insist on making the darks completely black , then with lightroom you use the histogram controls by moving the dots at the bottom in conjunction with the slider , to drop that portion of the histogram to nil.
In photoshop you might try the gradient controls to remove the green and orange hues at the bottom borders OR you can paint a mask negating those color tones. You have lots of options, and being real nice action photos , with that low angle , IMO its worth the time to do.
But being able to actually see the lights in the image , suggests to me that hoods aren't going to remove the flares,unless a super long one keeps dirt off, and if youre getting hit repeatedly on the lens with dirt , no filter is going to stay pristine either.
( to my taste , which you wouldn't need to attend, I would paint or clone out the lights themselves- they're hard to see past ) Up to you.