Light leak - Brandanschlag solingen 1993

A light leak is a hole or gap in the body of a camera, or other optical instrument, where light is able to "leak" into the normally light-tight chamber, exposing the film or sensor with extra light. This light is

diffuse Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...

, although parts within the camera may cast shadows or reflect it in a particular way. For most purposes this is considered a problem. Within the

lomography A toy camera is a simple, inexpensive film camera. Despite the name, toy cameras are fully functional and capable of taking photographs, though with optical aberrations due to the limitations of their simple lenses. From the 1990s onward, ther ...

movement it is seen as a positive effect, giving photos character. One frequent source of light leaks in 35 mm cameras is around the film door due to degrading foam. Replacing the foam is a simple matter.

Medium format Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in photography and the related cameras and equipment that use film. Nowadays, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than the used in 35&n ...

system camera A system camera or camera body is a camera with interchangeable components that constitutes the core of a system. Early representatives include Leica I Schraubgewinde (1930), Exakta (1936) and the Nikon F (1959). System cameras are often sin ...

s or

large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame ...

cameras may have leaks between their various interchangeable parts or in old leather

bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...

. Electrical tape is often used to repair light leaks in these cases. A light leak, considered as a problem, is a kind of

stray light Stray light is light in an optical system, which was not intended in the design. The light may be from the intended source, but follow paths other than intended, or it may be from a source other than the intended source. This light will often set a ...

. It is possible to have a "virtual" light leak in spectral regions, like portions of the IR spectrum at room temperature, where surfaces inside the system emit significant amounts of radiation. They can be created and emulated in

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image ...

and videography, either during production or after. In the first instance, the photographer or videographer removes the camera lens while photographing or recording and overloads the

image sensor An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of c ...

. This is usually used to create leaks which can then be overlaid onto another image or video. Or they can be created entirely digitally, with common photo-editing software packages such as

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in rast ...

, and overlaid into the image.

References

PhotoNotes.org
{{reflist Science of photography Optical phenomena