Have you seen those strange looking colors along the edges around objects in your images? Discover what this issue is and how to fix it using Aurora HDR.
What is Chromatic Aberration?
In simple terms, Chromatic Aberration is an optical phenomenon that produces an ugly greenish or pinkish fringe — also known as color fringing — that appears in photos. As a result, the image can look blurred or have noticeable colored edges (red, green, blue, yellow, purple, magenta) that appear around objects, especially in high-contrast images. Going a little deeper, it is a common problem that occurs when the lens can't focus all wavelengths of light equally on the sensor.
Bottom line, we photographers don’t like it. Here’s how we can avoid this with a quality lens or great software such as Aurora HDR.
Greenish fringe and Greenish fringe removed
Avoid Chromatic Aberration by using a quality lens
Lenses try to cancel out the chromatic aberration effect with multiple opposing elements, particularly with different densities of glass, but they have to make compromises — there's no such thing as perfect as it would compromise on something else — so pick the right lens for the job. When deciding on a lens, Abe Curland — a Nature Photographer and B&H Photo specialist — suggests purchasing a lens that is best in its class. A common lens class landscape photographers use is super-wide. These lenses usually range between 11mm-24mm, 14mm-24mm, or 16mm-35mm. Super-wide Prime lens offer the best quality but at a higher cost and less flexibility when shooting.
Use Aurora to remove Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic Aberration can even appear in the best of lenses. Thankfully, image editing software, such as Aurora HDR, has tools to fix this undesired anomaly with just a few mouse clicks.
1. Select the Create HDR Image button (after opening the series of images)
2. Click the gear icon and select these three options:
• Ghost Reduction
• Color Denoise
• Chromatic Aberration Removal
3. Click Create HDR to apply the settings.
Open 3 images
This normally does the trick, however, there may be stubborn Chromatic Aberrations that need a little extra. Don’t worry, that step is easy too.
Removing stubborn chromatic aberrations
1. Click on the Lens Correction icon next to FILTERS text
2. Adjust Defringe
3. Adjust Remove CA
4. Move the sliders to the right and left until the fringe is gone.
Extra tools in the Lens Correction section
So, by using a higher quality lens and adjusting a few sliders in Aurora HDR, you can ensure your images will be Chromatic Aberration free!
