Sunrise ... red halo!

[Jacs14]

Hi ... attented my first meet up through flickr, and my first sunrise today @ Wellington Point, where I met some of your members, who introduced me to this group.
So far my photography is a lot of trial and error, aperture, shutter speed etc is a lot of guess work to try and get it right ... I'm not sure that I am able to post any photos on here yet to show what I mean, as I am a new member, but basically I ended up with a 'red halo' on some of my shots. I'm sure its something simple that I have not got right, but any advice on how to avoid this will be gratefully received.

I am happy to receive all constructive comments as this I how I learn.

If you have the time to check out one of the shots in question, to see what I mean, that would be awesome, but I am aware you guys are also busy. The shot can be seen on my photostream on flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/kelsa

Many thanks

Jacs

[Lani]

Hi Jacs and welcome to AP.
Best idea to get feedback is to post your pics in the relevant forum. I had a look at your image, and there are are a couple of good suggestions posted there, also have a look through the tutorials section here, there is heaps of good info to be had.

[ricktas]

welcome, and as Lani says, post your photos to the relevant members photos forum for critique.

The red ring is lens flare, it is caused generally when the light source is visible through the lens when taking the photo, it is light reflecting off the glass elements inside your lens. A setting sun is a very common way to get lens flare. Some lenses are more prone to it than others. A lens hood can help in some circumstances, but lens flare happens and it is just part of photography.

It also looks like you have quite a few dust spots on your sensor, it will get tedious cloning them out all the time, I reckon it is time for the sensor to be cleaned as well.

[Analog6]

Hi Jacs, nice to meet you yesterday, welcome to AP

[Jacs14]

Thank you for your comments and advice ... have had some good feedback and advice as well from the flickr site ... wasn't sure if I could post any photos yet as i'm a new member, but will look at the forum better next time I'm after advice .... I'm sure there are going to be many times I will be seeking advice!!!
Thank you for taking the time to look and reply, its much appreciated.

Jacqui

[OldNick]

jacs, are you referring to the large red / gold halo in "Sunrise @ Wellington Point"?

If so, that is caused by jpg compression in the camera, and can be made worse if you again compress to save/post the shot.

jpg tries to compress the file size by making things that are very close in brightness and colour exactly the same, so that it can store more compactly. So what happens in a sky like that, where there is a very gradual change in hue, is that you get "clumps" of colour. Hence the rings.

The only real solution is to shoot raw, save only to tiff or bmp for yourself, and live with it on posted images. You can control it a bit when posting if you do the resize and save yourself, using the best possible settings that fit the hots site's rules.rather than forcing flickr etc to do it.

[rowdy23]

i really like the photos.
great spot,
i have had similar happen on mount wellington in hobart.

i dont think the halo is a huge issue with those shots.

cheers