need help not sure whats the problem

[ivans75]

Went to the knobbies at sunset and it was quite a disappointing trip as most of my shots had flaws. There is this round shadowy thing that keeps on popping every now and then so i ended up repeating the same shots over and over again with bulb mode and nd filter, sunset didnt take long to finish and had to pack up and go home. Any help? I suspect light leak from my el cheapo nd filter but who knows...

IMG_4163 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

(on the left you can see round shadowy shape near cars parked in the distance)

IMG_4163 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

IMG_4160 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

(on the water again round shadowy shape and the grassy area under the stairs are blurry for some reason)

IMG_4136 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

(this is my best shot so far)

IMG_4136 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

IMG_3885 by Ivan Sutrisno, on Flickr

(peacock beak blurry and out of focus, why?? This was taken with 70-200 f2.8ii lens)

It was a frustating day i can tell by the frequent swear words came out of my mouth

Lucky I had other shots not so bad, i ll post at the appropriate section soon taken at Maru wildlife park and Churchil Island (birds, koala, cows etc)

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sorry made mistake in copy-pasting the link, i cant seem to delete the doubled link, admin, can you help fix ? thanks

[mpb]

Starting with the peacock, at f2. 8 your depth of field is way too narrow. The focus is just behind the left eye which puts the neck, top of head and tuft of features behind and just below the eye in focus. As you move away from this plane you start to move out of the focal range of f2. 8. Something around f8 would have increased the depth of field (focal range). Need to up the iso or reduce shutter speed to compensate.

The spots in the first two could be just lens flare from shooting towards the sun.

[ivans75]

Starting with the peacock, at f2. 8 your depth of field is way too narrow. The focus is just behind the left eye which puts the neck, top of head and tuft of features behind and just below the eye in focus. As you move away from this plane you start to move out of the focal range of f2. 8. Something around f8 would have increased the depth of field (focal range). Need to up the iso or reduce shutter speed to compensate.

The spots in the first two could be just lens flare from shooting towards the sun.

Thanks mpb, it was shot with iso 200 f2.8 and 1/1000. Yeah I should have up the iso (used auto iso) and down few stops. Wanted to get bokeh on the background but guess i failed on the other side

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Lens flare? Any tips to get rid of that? Or what should I do next time? I hate that ruin the whole pic

[Tannin]

Yep, it's flare.

(a) You can work with it - use it as part of your composition (but only when you are feeling a bit radical)

(b) Otherwise, keep the sun out of the frame

(c) Always, always use the lens hood. If need be use something else to shade the lens (the back of your hand can be enough)

(d) don't use filters. Good ones add to flare. Bad ones are a horrorshow.

(e) Some lenses flare more than others, or in different ways. Learn which of your lenses do what and choose the right horse for the right course. (As best you can: all lenses are compromises. If you meet a perfect one, marry it.)

You can't always follow all of these tips. Such is life. If photography was just as easy as washing your car, it would be just as boring as washing your car.

[ricktas]

I think Tannin ^ has given you all you need to know about lens flare. Lens flare is not necessarily a bad thing. Watch a few movies and you will often see it.

[mpb]

With your first two you want the sun in the shot so lens flare is probably inevitable.
In this case remove it in post processing if you don't want it.
Like this, done in lightroom with the heal tool. Also adjusted contrast, highlights, shadows, dehaze and a few others.

[arthurking83]

Adding to what Tannin said, you can almost always 'remove' flare from the lens, without needing cloning tools.
I've yet to come across a lens that flares so badly that you can't reposition yourself/camera/lens so that it doesn't show up.
Although I haven't tried my really old non landscapey lenses to say all lenses can be dealt with in this way.
You can usually see the flare/reflection in the scene through the viewfinder if you look for them. This is a classic situation where I'd take a good few minutes to compose knowing that with the sun in the shot, I'm going to get flare.
Sometimes this isn't easy if you have other people waiting for you to take photos(I stopped taking the lids on any photo trips I like to get out for!
If you can see it straight up, but you have the lens stopped down(eg. f/8 or f/11, or something) then try the Depth of Field Preview(DOFP) button. This stops the lens down to the selected aperture. the image will get dark at f stops smaller than f/5.6. This darkening helps to see the brighter flare spots too.
So the way to remove flare without cloning tools is moving the lens positioning just a little bit this way or that way ... it's that simple!
You reposition yourself in such a manner that the flare is not visible in the image.
The flare is always going to be there, but think of it in that it's actually a reflection of a flare. The flare is a reflection of a spot of light going back from the front of one lens element and hitting the surface of the rear of another element. But it may also be multiple reflections and not just the one.
Think of the lens as a tube with a few pieces of magnifying lenses in it. One glass piece reflects the light coming through it back towards the front, and the glasses in front of that one will then show that reflection.
if you turn the position of the lens a little and that reflection doesn't hit the rear of one of those front glasses, and instead it reflects onto the inside wall of the tube .. you do see it!
It may mean that you won't get that exact point of view of the scene, but less flare(unless deliberate) may be a good trade off.

Another thing(actually 2 things!) that causes flare is dust on the front of the lens or inside the lens on some of the elements. But this looks like classic glass reflection flare(ie. not dust).
The other thing that causes flare to be really bad are scratches. But I think you're lenses are new and I doubt you've scratched them already.
Get a rocket blower and a lens brush .. really fine bristle brush, with a bulb blower on it is good too.
If you can't get one of them easily, a womens make up brush is good too.(good quality, but not really expensive. ~ $10 is a good price range). I test them for how soft they are by brushing my closed eye lids.
If they tickle a little; is good. If they scratch your eyeballs out; you may want one only to degrease your car engine!
(the people at the discount chemist chain store look at me funny when I get a couple of packages of them )

Clean the front of the lens with these brush/blower type tools.
Never blow the rear of the lens with a blower, you will likely just push some of it into the lens. You can use a blower on the rear if you absolutely have too, but over time it will build up .. I just wouldn't take the chance. I use the brushes only on the rear element if it really needs it. hold the lens up-side-down and brush it in that position.

On the peacock, I'm going to make a guess here:
I think you're using the camera in a focus mode called AFS(single shot) mode.
That is... it's focusing, you hear the beep, and then fire the shot?
If that's right, then this is almost certainly why the peacock is out of focus, plus the almost certain point that it's just a misfocused shot. Easy to do, happens regularly.
The problem with that way of focusing is:
You focus. <either you or the peacock is moving towards away from each other> you hear the beep <either yourself or the peacock are moving towards or away from each other> you shoot <you are not at the same distance to each other as the first focus hit>
Image is usually OOF.

A focus mode to try using if you aren't already using it is AFC(continuous, or servo on a Canon). it's a better way to shoot moving things. The lens will chatter as it's constantly focusing a bit here and there, as the subject or yourself move in relation to each other.
If you use AFC mode already, then it's probably just a misfocused shot. The AF point you're using in the viewfinder is important as to how accurate the focusing is going to be too.
if you're using single point focus mode, and you use a side focus point, then these aren't as accurate as is the centre focus point. They're not totally inaccurate, just less accurate.
That's the other focus mode question I wanted to see in the exif in your other thread. if you don't already, try using single focus point mode and choose the focus point you wan to be used yourself.
Those auto focus point modes can be good for people shots, but not always good for other stuff.

The other 'less important' but appropriate topic to discuss here is if you know of back button focusing?
I don't know the 80D camera, but I think it won't have an AF-On focus button on the back. If it does, try to learn to use it.
If you need help about it, ask.
if the 80D doesn't have an AF-On button, there is probably a way to set the camera up to use another button to manually set when the camera is to focus.

The point with those two options on focusing is so that you (the operator of the camera) is in charge of when the camera does stuff .. like focusing!
You press the shutter button, so the camera fires the shutter. I think if you want to focus on something, then you should be in control of when to focus .. and when(if) you try to teach yourself this usage, you will then learn when not to focus too.

I guess there's more to the story behind the peacock image .. such as is this a crop of a wider image? If not, which focus point was used?
If you use Canon's DPP software, it can show you the focus point used in the image.

Like mpb said too .. maybe learn to stop down sometimes .. but I reckon f/4 would have been nice in the peacock if the focus was on the eye.