Thursday, June 19, 2008

What's Wrong With This Picture? No Really, What's Wrong?

Maybe y'all could figure this one out for me. (Sorry for the y'all but I just talked to a friend in the south!) This keeps happening to some of my pictures. It happened last night with my 100mm macro lens. It happened last month with the same lens and my 50mm. And it happened a few months ago shooting the entrance sign for the Santa Monica Pier. At first I thought it was my lens until it happened with other lenses. Is something wrong with my camera? Don't get me wrong, I think it looks cool. But how do I control this if I don't want it to appear?



19 comments:

Robin said...

How strange. Sort of cool looking, but certainly not something you'd want showing up of its own volition. I haven't the faintest idea what it might be, I just came by to tell you that I thought of you last night when I saw the most incredibly cool moon over a bunch of city lights as I was driving to a friend's house. Frustratingly I didn't have my camera.

karly said...

Of course, I am clueless, but curious nonetheless. What would make that do that??

Anna said...

OK, so I have never seen that. My first thought though?

TOTAL SPIRITUAL WARFARE. IT'S A BATTLE CRY!

;)

It was great talking to you on the phone...hope I didn't cause you go insane!

Later!

OhCaptain said...

Here's a bended light theory for you. Were you using a filter on your lens? It could be light reflected off the lens, back to the filter and the back to the sensor.

Since the one image is upside down, I'd be guess its a reflection of some kind.

Erin Faye said...

That is so weird! I was going to say the same thing as ohcaptain.

Hope you get it figured out.

Horsoon said...

I've never seen that... perhaps a post to the editors at popphoto.com may help?

Carletta said...

I'm just guessing reflection too - only because that's what it appears to be - the how I'd be clueless on.
I bet somebody reading will know.

Hope you're having a great day!

Raven said...

It does look really cool. Must be a reflection. Only shows up in night-time photos? I have no idea. Being me I had to try googling for an answer. I didn't find an answer but I found this photo which blew me away and which I thought you would probably enjoy. http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1837

Raven said...

Open photography forums Ok... the link didn't look right so I'm going to try to us html and I'm not sure I'm doing it right so I apologize if I leave two comments and still don't get the link to you. It's SUCH a cool photo... I hope it works.

Anonymous said...

Like the others, I know only that it is a reflection. I have no idea what is causing it. I like the first two photos though. They add a great dimension.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a sign....walk the line cause you could either go up or down!
ha!

Have no idea....unless the picture is completely black...then I know it's the lens cap.

juliana said...

wow, i've never seen an effect like this... and have no idea what could have caused it. looks fascinating, though.

Dr.John said...

An upside down reflection. How strange.

Shelly said...

Haven't a clue, but I'm such a newbie with this stuff. It's kinda cool though. I posted a cross in lights today too...what are the odds? Crazy, huh?

Anna said...

Well... controlled or no the pictures come out cool!

Grafted Branch said...

It's your aperture. If you'll be sure to close it another setting and just lengthen your shutter speed...

...wait...

...I'm totally making that up. And it started to sound so good that I scared myself. :)

Robert said...

I should give awards for the comments here. If I did, they might look like this:

Best Advice Award
Val gets this one for reminding me about that pesky lens cover.

Best Interpretation as to Why This is Happening Award
Anna gets this one. Spiritual Warfare hits the photography scene!

Most Likely Correct Award
Hands down, this one has to go to OhCaptain. I'm going out first chance I get to test his theory.

I was originally going to give the above award to Grafted Branch but as it turns out she had me fooled as I missed the end of her comment the first time around.

Horsoon said...

I wonder if you've found the answers? Strangly enough, just after reading your blog, this actually happened to me!
It was a no-flash picture I took (http://flickr.com/photos/horsoon/2599810074/in/set-72157605746024347/) and I still can't figure out what caused it...

Dianne - Bunny Trails said...

TRIPPY!! What a wild photo. Sounds like you may have found a valid answer, though.

I enjoyed Raven's link - what an incredible picture. :D