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Green orb in photos?

I noticed a singular green orb in some sunset pictures I took recently. It wasn’t in all of them, but when it was in them it looked exactly the same size, shape, and color. When I looked through my moms photos, who was there with me there, she had the exact same thing, and so did my cousin. The pictures were over about an hour period, all in the same location.


I’ve never seen it in my photos before or since, and I’m an avid sunset photo taker.


I have an iPhone 13, my mom an iPhone 12 Pro, and my cousin an android.


My mom is convinced it’s a spirit orb, but I’m not so sure. I’ve heard that this can happen when taking a photo with a direct light source in it, but this green orb is so consistently unchanging (besides a pink glow around it in a couple) that I’m not sure what it is. Additionally, it was in front of us in selfies a lot, which I’ve never seen before.


Guess I’m just wondering if anyone has a similar experience or an explanation? I’ve attached some of them, a mix from all three of our cameras.

iPhone 13

Posted on Oct 23, 2023 6:22 PM

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Posted on Mar 14, 2024 4:49 PM

I have, every time I try to take a moon or night sky shot get that same glow orb but mine moves erratically

5 replies

Oct 24, 2023 7:36 AM in response to Lucia4520

No Spirits needed! You have some beautiful examples of a problem that plagues photographers.


Notice that, when the sun is above and to the right of the center of the picture, the "orb" is below and to the left. And, when the sun is above and to the left of the center of the picture, the "orb" is below and to the right. Just like a mirror image-- which is what it is.


Glass is transparent-- light goes through it. But about 5% of the light actually reflects off a glass surface-- even the inside surface. Getting an image like yours requires at least two reflections, so only a very tiny amount of reflected light reaches the sensor. This reflection happens every time you take a picture, but you seldom see it.


Modern lenses are made of multiple pieces of glass, so there are lots of internal reflections. The interface between surfaces is specially coated to reduce the reflection to much less that the usual 5%, which does wonders for eliminating flare and spurious images . But if the light source is very very bright, like the sun, or like spotlights on a dark concert stage, you can see the reflected image. The image may be different colors, because the amount of reflection reduced by the coatings depends on the wavelength. Green is the center of the spectrum, and the anti-reflection coatings have been more successful with the longer and shorter wavelengths.


You can use the "retouch" tool in Photos to remove the green spot, if you'd like.


Mar 14, 2024 5:19 PM in response to kenda6465

kenda6465 wrote:

I have, every time I try to take a moon or night sky shot get that same glow orb but mine moves erratically


Keep the bright point sources out of the frame to avoid creating the lens flare, or use a shield hood or tree or person to block the point sources from falling upon the lens, or post-process and edit the lens flare out of the image, or incorporate the lens flare into the style of the image. (I have some night shots with myriad point sources, and the lens flare adds to the image.)


More than a few films and series and games will insert lens flare into their visuals, as an example of a particular visual style. For many of those images using computer graphics, those don’t have point sources or lenses, so the lens flare is explicitly added.


Some more info and particularly many examples: iPhone Camera Lens Flare and Reflections - Apple Community


Jul 4, 2024 11:30 AM in response to MeisterFritz

MeisterFritz wrote:

We just returned from Green Lake in Maine. My wife took many sunrise photos on her iPhone 13! Those same green orbs appeared and they are not from the spirit world! I hypothesize that they are caused by low lighting conditions! Why? Because many other images were captured in daylight and the orbs are absent!


This is called lens flare.


Lens flare is caused by bright point light sources within the frame.


This whether the light sources are from the sun, streetlights, headlights, or otherwise.


Lens flare is inherent in how lenses work.


For more details, see the reply from Richard.Taylor and myself, above.

Green orb in photos?

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