Weird ring on long exposure picture - iPhone 14 - iOS 14.5.1

LuMelbourne · Oct 11, 2024

Hi,
I am new to this forum and got here on the search for an answer on a really annoying issue I experienced with my iPhone.
Last night we had the rare spectacular of seeing Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) appearing in the night sky of northern Germany.
It was beautiful and something I had on my bucket list for very long.

My iPhone generally did a good job in capturing this moment and I was happy with the pictures. Until I noticed that on every picture taken with 3 seconds long exposure, there was a strange ring appearing in the middle of the picture. This somehow ruins the otherwise great pictures. When I realized the issue, I wiped the camera lens, but that did not help. I have nothing on the lens that could explain this. I also did some research on this phenomenon but couldn't find any explanation. Attached you can see some pictures, where the ring is clearly visible.

Did anyone else experience something similar with long exposure pictures?
I would really like to find an explanation on this and hopefully even a solution to get rid of this?

Thanks in advance!

ThatTechyGuy · Oct 11, 2024

Check this reddit thread I found:

Very interesting. Seems people have this same issue when photographing the Northern lights! I wonder if it has something to do with the way the cameras are built.

One commenter said this:
Its called a newton’s ring and it’s a common phenomenon with cameras. Particularly when using high ISO/long exposure.

LuMelbourne · Oct 14, 2024

ThatTechyGuy said:
Check this reddit thread I found:

Very interesting. Seems people have this same issue when photographing the Northern lights! I wonder if it has something to do with the way the cameras are built.

One commenter said this:
Its called a newton’s ring and it’s a common phenomenon with cameras. Particularly when using high ISO/long exposure.

Thanks @ThatTechyGuy! No solution, but at least I know that I am not the only one having this issue.