Candle flares on the RED with Cooke S4s

Currently shooting on a BBC period (1800's) costume drama and we've got lots of candles in shot for night interiors and we're having problems with flares. Small, bright blue willo-the-wisp looking flares in a mirror image of the candle flame are very prominent whenever a candle appears and of course always end up over an actor’s face.

Shooting with the RED, build 20 with Cooke S4's.
Anyone seen this before? Is it a Cooke/RED combination problem?
Help please.

Cheers
Steven Gardner
Focus Puller
UK

>>Small, bright blue willo-the-wisp looking flares in a mirror image of the candle flame are very >>prominent whenever a candle appears and of course always end up over an actor’s face... Anyone >>seen this before? Is it a Cooke/RED combination problem?

Reflection off the sensor package surface? Try the same lens setup on a ground glass?

Tim Sassoon
SFD
Santa Monica, CA

>>Reflection off the sensor package surface?

Interesting point.. I guess film emulsion is a kind of satin finish, but light can bounce off in funny ways. I remember a Cooke S4 vs Primo test, that I believe I saw about 6 years ago ; it was fascinating...the naked light bulb in shot was thought to be reflecting off the emulsion and then skipping around the rear element(s) of the lenses. Definitely worse in some designs then others. Since all these digital cameras have IR cutoff/lowpass filters in front of their sensors, they would be a very possible source of internal reflection...I don't suppose many have broadband AR filters on their front surfaces?....

Douglas Koch

cscDp Toronto

Steven Gardner wrote:

>>Currently shooting on a BBC period (1800's) costume drama and we've got lots of candles in shot >>for night interiors and we're having problems with flares. Small, bright blue willo-the-wisp looking >>flares ......

Seen this on a shoot a while back turns out it's infrared flare, try adding IR cut filter that worked for us. And this has led to me ALWAYS flying the IR cut, as on that shoot, when we added the filter it changed the way the red outfit ur "Wizard" was wearing.

Fortunately on that shoot it was not a big issue as it was to be heavily coloured in post

Bret Lanius
Atlanta GA