# How to not get red ring around the sun in Sunrise photos



## erichewell (Jun 26, 2010)

So I was at the beach and went out to take some pictures with a friend of the sun rise. I was using my nikon d5000 with a gradual gray cokin filter. About every picture had this red ring around the sun. I don't know if this is the result of the filter or just the sun being bright or what. How can i get a picture without the red ring?


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## KmH (Jun 26, 2010)

erichewell said:


> So I was at the beach and went out to take some pictures with a friend of the sun rise. I was using my nikon d5000 with a gradual gray cokin filter. About every picture had this red ring around the sun. I don't know if this is the result of the filter or just the sun being bright or what. How can i get a picture without the red ring?


Cokin filters are famous for having issues like this.

It could also just be lens flare. With out you posting a sample photo to look at, no oner can say with much certainty.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...forum-functions-pictoral-guide-using-tpf.html


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## photographydude (Jun 27, 2010)

erichewell said:


> So I was at the beach and went out to take some pictures with a friend of the sun rise. I was using my nikon d5000 with a gradual gray cokin filter. About every picture had this red ring around the sun. I don't know if this is the result of the filter or just the sun being bright or what. How can i get a picture without the red ring?



I am not sure if you are referring to lens flare or a ring or halo around the sun. I assume some kind of lens flare.

I use cokin P filters as well and get this sometimes. There are a few ways to get around this.

1. Use a multicoated filter. The multicoated filters tend to cut down on this. I am pretty sure none of cokin's filters are multicoated (if they exist I have not seen any nor do I own one). There are other manufactures that make filters to fit the cokin system so check them out or get a round filter (yes they are very very expensive).

2. Shoot directly into the sun. If you frame your shot with the sun directly over the center a/f point the red spots should go away or at least blend into the sun. In a pinch this is what I do but it can cramp your creative framing style.

3. Remove a filter. If you use a UV filter or polarizer as well, remove them and only use one filter. This cuts down on the light bouncing around and also will help the quality of your photo since there is less image degradation.

4. Don't use a filter. If none of the above work and you are handy at photoshop, use can bracket your photos. The ND grads will cut your exposure down by a certain number of f-stops. Simple take two photos. One for the sky and one for the foreground at the the number of f-stops above the filter you want to use. Then blend them in photoshop.

For example if you were using a Cokin 121M (which is a 2 stop ND) you would expose the sky to whatever your TTL meter (the camera) says and then take note of this. Now leave the camera in the same spot and change your exposure to 2 stops higher to expose the foreground. Come back home and load into photoshop. Overlay both images, set the foreground on top of the sky image and set the foreground image to screen layer mode. This should lighten the forground and give you a rather nice image. Adjust the opacity of the foreground to suit your needs. It should be noted that you need to shoot on a tripod when you do this. Essentially you are edging on HDR when you do this technique - although you are not quite there.

5. Let the spot stay and remove the spots in photohop post. Just use the spot healing tool an click to remove it. Easy as done! 

Like I said I have this problem too sometimes and I usually just remove the spots in photoshop since I also remove all traces of human activity in my landscapes (power likes, boats, jet trails, etc) since I like that untouched look.

Hope this helps!


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