The problem is the headlights are hitting your lens just at the right angle to cause flare. It's similar to taking pictures into the sun. Can you stand more off angle? The more direct you are the more this problem rears its head.
People buy star filters to recreate the same effect! I reckon it looks great! Or are you talking of the green spots that look like the headlight/ditchlight arrangement upside down and to the left?
I never encounter this problem using the same AF lenses shooting film so I do not understand why this happens when using digital.
Digital has far more of a problem with flare due to the much more shiny reflective surface of the CCD. A lot of manufacturers are coming out with "digital" lenses and one of the design criteria is to get the light rays to be perpendicular to the sensor when it hits. "Film" lenses have the rays hitting the sensor in an angle. There's nothing wrong with that but in severe cases like yours it does increase flare. If you really can't avoid it, how about Photoshop?
Hope you can figure this out. Digital is so much different from my old SLR. Am struggling to learn all the tricks. A lot of bells and whistles to assimilate... Boxcab E50
Lenny, I just don't know! The green spots look like internal lens reflections, at least at this resolution. The two top ones are oriented at the same angle from the lights; I don't know about the third one at the bottom, or the bright spot on the rails below that. What was the camera, lens, and f/stop? If you want to send me a larger image, I'll be happy to look at it.
Hi Pete; The top 2 spots are from the ditch lights, the bottom one from the headlight. Shot was taken with a Nikon D50 and a Sigma 70-300mm APO D AF zoom. I got this repsonse from DWIG on the Nikonians board; "Three green spots that are almost certainly reflections off of the sensor, actuall the filter in front of the sensor, bouncing back after reflecting off of the rear element of the lens, a common occurance with digital cameras and usually is inverted 180 degrees about the center of the image from the light source that produced it, the three headlights in this instance." Check your inbox. Cheers, Lenny
I have seen those green spots in pictures I have taken with my new lens... I had chalked it up to the light reflecting caused by the UV filter. I never had that issue with my old lens, but I didn't have a filter on it! Harold
I find it more likely to occur when shooting nearly head on in lower light... If I get one that is offensive, I usually just edit it out. Harold
Interesting, only a single spot. The problem seems to occur when the source of light is near the center of the frame.
It's not the filter in front of your lens. The light is bouncing around inside the lightbox of your camera and causing flare internally. There are a lot more shiny surfaces inside the lightbox of a DSLR than a SLR.
That's what I would think given my experience with filter use and shooting 35mm film. However, the jury is still out given post #7 on this thread. http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID201/15281.html
Lenny sent me a larger image, and I tend to agree that it is flare caused when light reflects off the filter in front of the sensor (not the filter in front of the lens), and then reflects back off the rear of the lens. At first I had trouble with the location of the bottom spot; then I realized, before I returned to this thread, that the three spots formed a triangle of the same geometry, only inverted. As a camera records images "upside down"(top is bottom, left is right), it makes sense that this is a reflection off the back of the lens. The recording (i.e. emulsion) side of film is not shiny.
I tested removing the external UV filter in a couple of different light conditions and saw the spots in the finder, which I had noticed previously, however none appeared to be captured on any of the images. A little unsettling going without anything protecting the front element of the lens but the results speak for themselves.
