Hello, attached you find a photo with reflexions (I marked them in addition). Can you tell me where this is comming from and how to avoid? Just a sun shade missing? Was the sun in the edge a problem? Is somehow light coming between relay and front unit? I photographed with Sony A1 in Nauticam Housing, Focus Unit with 67mm bayonett, Relay Lens and 130 degree front element, Strobes clear behind the front element of port. Thanks in advance

Hi

3 hours ago, Michi said:

Hello, attached you find a photo with reflexions (I marked them in addition). Can you tell me where this is comming from and how to avoid? Just a sun shade missing? Was the sun in the edge a problem? Is somehow light coming between relay and front unit? I photographed with Sony A1 in Nauticam Housing, Focus Unit with 67mm bayonett, Relay Lens and 130 degree front element, Strobes clear behind the front element of port. Thanks in advance

Hi - what you are seeing is lens flare - a common problem with the emwl optics. Personally I use the lens shade on my 100mm objective lens, the downside is you cannot get quite as close to the subject. Another option is to cut out as much ambient light as you can (high shutter speed / low iso). The 130 degree is a much bigger lens and the shade will be even bigger! Sad to say that what you see in your pic is a classic EMWL problem!

All the best - enjoy using the system - once you get used to it, it is a great lens set up.

21 minutes ago, johnvila said:

Hi

Hi - what you are seeing is lens flare - a common problem with the emwl optics. Personally I use the lens shade on my 100mm objective lens, the downside is you cannot get quite as close to the subject. Another option is to cut out as much ambient light as you can (high shutter speed / low iso). The 130 degree is a much bigger lens and the shade will be even bigger! Sad to say that what you see in your pic is a classic EMWL problem!

All the best - enjoy using the system - once you get used to it, it is a great lens set up.

Hi John, thanks a lot! For me it feels like a mirrored image in my photo of the front element of the port and not just flare. I will get a sun shade and see how it works with distance and this ugly effect...

Not a flare but rather looks like the reflection of the camera lens (inside the housing) into the front glass.

I don't know for the specific case of the EMWL but in wide angle photo, it used to happen with some dome ports (particularly the non optical glass ones) when shooting in the sun light.

You need to prevent shiny parts inside your housing to reflect sun light esp the front of your camera lens, I used to stick some non reflective black felt material around the camera lens front so it limits the light reflection. Once again I don't know whether this workaround would operate with a EMWL.

2 hours ago, Luko said:

Not a flare but rather looks like the reflection of the camera lens (inside the housing) into the front glass.

I don't know for the specific case of the EMWL but in wide angle photo, it used to happen with some dome ports (particularly the non optical glass ones) when shooting in the sun light.

You need to prevent shiny parts inside your housing to reflect sun light esp the front of your camera lens, I used to stick some non reflective black felt material around the camera lens front so it limits the light reflection. Once again I don't know whether this workaround would operate with a EMWL.

Hi Luko, thanks for your response: I had also more the feeling of a reflection but I dont know how a real reflection could be possible... I will try the sun shade first and guess this is the solution... But I post in here if I can get rid of this with a sun shade! shooting directly in the sun was by the way no problem...

5 minutes ago, Michi said:

Hi Luko, thanks for your response: I had also more the feeling of a reflection but I dont know how a real reflection could be possible... I will try the sun shade first and guess this is the solution... But I post in here if I can get rid of this with a sun shade! shooting directly in the sun was by the way no problem...

As @Luko wrote I had to put some black masking tape on the front of lens. I was getting all the lens writings reflected on the dome. Just try it.

13 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

As @Luko wrote I had to put some black masking tape on the front of lens. I was getting all the lens writings reflected on the dome. Just try it.

Hi Davide, thanks for your tip! I am wondering: Was it also with an EMWL or in a non wet lens and a normal port? So you covered the macro lens?! Thanks in advance

In my case it was the Lumix 12-35 in a 6" acrylic dome. But it had the same problem my buddy on a Panaleica 8-18 mm in a 230 mm glass dome.

Never a problem with macro but the emwl is a complex lens (3 parts) so who knows. The posted image feels the same...

On 9/9/2025 at 4:52 AM, Michi said:

Hi John, thanks a lot! For me it feels like a mirrored image in my photo of the front element of the port and not just flare. I will get a sun shade and see how it works with distance and this ugly effect...

As an early EMWL user, I can definitely tell these disappear with a shade. Those are easily visible with the 100 and 130° lenses.

18 minutes ago, eocean-eu said:

As an early EMWL user, I can definitely tell these disappear with a shade. Those are easily visible with the 100 and 130° lenses.

I agree, the front element of 130 is bulging out and the light source could have come from literally anywhere... perhaps even caused by the shrimp... it definitely is not camera lens reflection, the construction of EMWL system wouldn't allow it.

I have the same system - A1 and 130 - and time to time the reflections appear... rarely but they do. With the shade you won't be able to get this close to shrimp though and anemone would quite suffer. I would say with taking several pictures there would be a good chance to have at least one of them clean.

Great example of a good use of 130 btw!👏

On 9/8/2025 at 1:19 PM, Michi said:

Hello, attached you find a photo with reflexions (I marked them in addition). Can you tell me where this is comming from and how to avoid? Just a sun shade missing? Was the sun in the edge a problem? Is somehow light coming between relay and front unit? I photographed with Sony A1 in Nauticam Housing, Focus Unit with 67mm bayonett, Relay Lens and 130 degree front element, Strobes clear behind the front element of port. Thanks in advance

Regardless, with a little editing that’s a nice frame!

On 9/11/2025 at 9:51 AM, eocean-eu said:

As an early EMWL user, I can definitely tell these disappear with a shade. Those are easily visible with the 100 and 130° lenses.

Thanks a lot! I got now shades and so far I cant reproduce these reflections but just did two dives...

On 9/11/2025 at 10:17 AM, RomiK said:

I agree, the front element of 130 is bulging out and the light source could have come from literally anywhere... perhaps even caused by the shrimp... it definitely is not camera lens reflection, the construction of EMWL system wouldn't allow it.

I have the same system - A1 and 130 - and time to time the reflections appear... rarely but they do. With the shade you won't be able to get this close to shrimp though and anemone would quite suffer. I would say with taking several pictures there would be a good chance to have at least one of them clean.

Great example of a good use of 130 btw!👏

Thanks also for thise response to my problem! During my last dive, I had the shades attached to a carabiner and used them whenever I felt like it... Unfortunately, this means I can't illuminate nearby objects very well... But otherwise, if everything worked perfectly, it would be too easy ;-) Thanks for the props - I am a beginner with this system by step by step I am getting closer to shots I am happy with :-)

On 9/11/2025 at 6:43 PM, humu9679 said:

Regardless, with a little editing that’s a nice frame!

Thank you for the compliment! With the blue parts I agree it´s easy but I find editing the part of the anemone's arms quite challenging to do it perfectly and it s time consuming... May I ask how you would approach the editing in general and what software you are? And how long will you spend on these parts editing to get a proper result? Here is another example for a reasonable photo but terrible reflections on the diver....

1 hour ago, Michi said:

Thank you for the compliment! With the blue parts I agree it´s easy but I find editing the part of the anemone’sf arms quite challenging to do it perfectly and it s time consuming… yMay I ask how you would approach the editing in general and what software you are? And how long will you spend on these parts editing to get a proper result? Here is another example for a reasonable photo but terrible reflections on the diver…. typicall

I typically edit in Lightroom for exposure, shadows, highlights and color balance, then I export the photo as a large jpeg to Photoshop where I can run Backscatter Eliminator. I then spot out the tedious bits that BS Eliminator did not fix, then export as a small file for social media. https://www.goaskerin.com/backscatterxterminator

22 minutes ago, humu9679 said:

I typically edit in Lightroom for exposure, shadows, highlights and color balance, then I export the photo as a large jpeg to Photoshop where I can run Backscatter Eliminator. I then spot out the tedious bits that BS Eliminator did not fix, then export as a small file for social media. https://www.goaskerin.com/backscatterxterminator

Thank you for your example work and explanation. How would you remove the EMWL reflection parts in the photo I marked in photoshop? With a "clone" tool? I work with Gimp and there is a "heal" and "clone" tool but I think it is very time consuming and feels like kind of "painting the photo"...

The Remove brush in Photoshop is going to work about 1000X better than Gimp. It is also better or more precise than remove in LRc.

10 hours ago, Michi said:

Thank you for your example work and explanation. How would you remove the EMWL reflection parts in the photo I marked in photoshop? With a "clone" tool? I work with Gimp and there is a "heal" and "clone" tool but I think it is very time consuming and feels like kind of "painting the photo"...

There’s probably a better way than cloning, but that’s what I used in the example above. I’d have to explore more. There’s a lot of debris in the water that BS Eliminator did not help.

8 minutes ago, humu9679 said:

There’s probably a better way than cloning, but that’s what I used in the example above. I’d have to explore more. There’s a lot of debris in the water that BS Eliminator did not help.

In my opinion, that picture really didn't need a BS scrub. Just some brightness adjustments or masks. The backscatter was pretty mild. It's okay to show a little bit of reality in your images.

The AI based remove tools in image apps will do wonders on those reflections, however.

It's actually quite possible to remove the reflections with basic cloning tools. I use the old PS CS6 and the blue water reflections went instantly with spot healing brush and the reflections on the arms I could do with the cloning tool (non smart, just has a feathering adjustment.)

If you are working with a straight cloning tool the secret is to zoom right in and start where the reflection crosses the edges of the arms. The tool provides a preview of what it will do - align the tool on the edge and alt-click to select the source then move to where you want to clone and move up and down till the edge and the cloned edge align and click. I use a Wacom tablet for this - makes it very easy to do. A lot of the ease for this kind of work comes from the sequences you need to perform to precisely select the clone source. I haven't used GIMP for a long time and not sure how it works but the PS sequence is very intuitive. Here is the cleaned version - took me all of 5 minutes and included cleaning off the outline you drew over the arms to show what can be done with basic tools:

2 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

It's actually quite possible to remove the reflections with basic cloning tools. I use the old PS CS6 and the blue water reflections went instantly with spot healing brush and the reflections on the arms I could do with the cloning tool (non smart, just has a feathering adjustment.)

If you are working with a straight cloning tool the secret is to zoom right in and start where the reflection crosses the edges of the arms. The tool provides a preview of what it will do - align the tool on the edge and alt-click to select the source then move to where you want to clone and move up and down till the edge and the cloned edge align and click. I use a Wacom tablet for this - makes it very easy to do. A lot of the ease for this kind of work comes from the sequences you need to perform to precisely select the clone source. I haven't used GIMP for a long time and not sure how it works but the PS sequence is very intuitive. Here is the cleaned version - took me all of 5 minutes and included cleaning off the outline you drew over the arms to show what can be done with basic tools:

Agreed, there are many ways to solve any photo editing challenge.

It is a lot more difficult if the reflection is not on open water. If it ends up on a complex surface cloning is not going to work as simply.

Plus, Photoshop Remove will do the job in about 10 seconds

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Dave_Hicks

4 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Agreed, there are many ways to solve any photo editing challenge.

It is a lot more difficult if the reflection is not on open water. If it ends up on a complex surface cloning is not going to work as simply.

Plus, Photoshop Remove will do the job in about 10 seconds

It's still a good skill to have and I can do it without subscribing to Adobe. I use the tools like this a lot to cleanup focus stacks so get a fair bit of practice.

17 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

It's still a good skill to have and I can do it without subscribing to Adobe. I use the tools like this a lot to cleanup focus stacks so get a fair bit of practice.

With the amount of money underwater photo enthusiasts spend on lenses, ports, and strobes, etc an Adobe subscription is cheap by comparison. I'm still paying $120usd a year for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and it is a better enhancement to my photography than any lens, body, or port I have ever bought.

In the distant past I used Nikon's apps (what was that called) and other photo editing tools over the years. Lightroom was an instant upgrade to my output and made my workflow so much easier. I have no qualms about paying a subscription for the best tools available.

Meanwhile, I pay subscriptions for my News, TV, internet access, mobile phone service, amazon deliveries, Car (lease), health care, and a dozen other things. At least Adobe gets better over time, unlike most of this other crap that just stagnates or gets worse every year.

Totally agree with Dave.

There are a good few folks here, whose views I respect massively, who see the Adobe subscription as a rip-off. However I’m with Dave. I’ve been using LR since it was first introduced and the gradual improvements in capability have been fantastic. It is the most significant contribution I’ve had to improving my image end results.

The recent subscription increase was a bit hefty but I still think it remains an outstanding product at a fair price.

Everyone has their own price points they are willing to pay, for me personally, I've been using PS for 25 years+ and apart from RAW converter updates I can do most of the tricks that Adobe introduces with the tools I have in my version. I recall that their updates were getting progressively less compelling and they in fact held back things like support for high res monitors until after they introduced the subscription model, lots of people swore off them on the forums I frequented back then.

Of course not everyone has that skill set and if they choose to subscribe, it's up to them entirely. For me I only ever used PS, never lightroom, apparently it's getting closer now but from talking to people the PS tools area easier to use than LR. For me exercising those skills makes me feel like the photo is more my creation - or something like that. Not disparaging anyone who chooses to subscribe, just letting people know what is possible without all the AI tools etc.