We’ve all been there. We tried to snap awesome photos at night with our iPhone, but a touch of lens flare completely destroys the photo. Unsurprisingly, you may be wondering how to reduce lens flare on iPhone. Thankfully, it should be petty easy to do.
The simplest way to remove lens flare is to get out of the way of the light that is causing the lens flare. If that isn’t possible, then covering the camera’s lens may help. In some cases, getting rid of lens flare will be almost impossible. Your only option would be to reduce the flare as much as possible.
On this page, we will give you a few hints and tips for reducing lens flare. None of these will require any special equipment.
Table of Contents
- How Do I Get Rid of Lens Flare On My iPhone?
- Is Lens Flare Normal on iPhone?
- What Causes Lens Flare on iPhone?
- Conclusion
How Do I Get Rid of Lens Flare On My iPhone?
Lens flare is completely normal. It happens when light bounces off the iPhone’s camera lens. This means that the best way to combat lens flare is to stop that light from hitting the iPhone lens. There are a few ways that you can go about this.
Move
Perhaps the easiest way to combat lens flare on an iPhone is to change the camera’s angle. Move the iPhone a couple of inches to the left or right, and that light will hit the camera’s lens at a slightly different angle. In fact, it may not even hit the lens at all.
Of course, not all of us have the luxury of just being able to move. But if you can, then give it a go.
Cover The Camera Lens
If you can’t move, then you can rest your hand slightly above the camera lens. Don’t block the lens. You won’t be able to take a photo of anything other than your hands if you do that.
This method will work if the lens flare is caused by lights above you, e.g. stars or the moon.
Turn Off The Lights
If you are indoors, then turn off the lights. Your iPhone has an in-built camera flash. In most cases, the camera flash shouldn’t cause any lens flare. Of course, you will have to put up with the fact that your room is going to be a little bit darker.
Alternatively, you can block the light in some way. Closing the curtains (if the light comes from outside) should do the trick in most cases.
Dim The Lights
Lens flare is normally caused by very bright lights. If you can dim the lights, then you can give that a go. Even if it doesn’t completely eliminate the lens flare, it should make it less prominent.
Clean The Camera Lens
In some cases, you may just have a dirty camera lens. If you have never cleaned the lens on your iPhone, then give it a clean. You will want a proper camera cleaning cloth here, i.e. something that will not leave small amounts of lint behind.
An unclean camera lens will have small specks of dirt on it (you may not be able to see them), and the light could be bouncing off of these specks of dirt, which causes the lens flare.
Keep The Light Out of The Frame
If you watch pro photographers, 99% of the time, they will try to ensure that any lens flare is slightly outside the frame. This is easier to accomplish if you have an artificial light source. If you need an artificial light source, have the light land on the camera slightly before it hits the camera lens. You may need to move about a bit to try and get this perfect.
Purchase a Lens Hood
If you will be taking photos from your iPhone a lot, we suggest you purchase a proper lens hood. It can be somewhat cumbersome to carry around, but it will probably be the best method for preventing light from hitting the camera’s lens. Most professional photographers will use a lens hood for this reason (this does the same job as using your hand).
Is Lens Flare Normal on iPhone?
Yes. It is perfectly normal for there to be a bit of lens flare. This doesn’t just apply to your iPhone but pretty much every single camera out there.
What Causes Lens Flare on iPhone?
The actual concept of lens flare is pretty technical. As we have said several times, it is almost impossible to combat lens flare without actually removing the light source from the frame as much as possible. This is due to how camera lenses work.
Lens have been designed to reduce light reflection, and they do a brilliant job at reducing light reflection from dimmer sources of light. However, the anti-reflective coating isn’t enough to keep bright sources of light at bay. So, when that bright light filters in, the camera lens doesn’t remove all of the brightness, and then it comes up in your photo.
On digital cameras, wide-angle lenses tend to do a better job at keeping that lens flare at bay (because they are expected to have light in the frame), but you won’t have this luxury if you are using an iPhone. Even if you purchased a wide-angled lens for your iPhone, it is still just covering up the standard lens. You aren’t actually replacing a lens like you would on a DSLR camera.
Conclusion
When it comes to reducing lens flare on iPhone at night, your best bet is to angle the iPhone so you don’t have the light source hitting the lens directly. Alternatively, you can block the light flowing into the lens by either placing your hand over the top of the lens (but not directly on the lens), or by purchasing a lens hood.
Sadly, no software settings will stop lens flare from appearing. The software on your phone only records what the lens takes in (which is that bright light).
