5 Simple Steps to Better Color Pictures Shield your lens from direct light One of the biggest image degrading factors I have seen is lens flare. When direct light enters the front of your lens, it bounces around in the lens lowering contrast and destroying color saturation. You will mostly encounter lens flare when photographing a backlit subject. That is to say when the sun is in front of you and behind the object of the photograph. There are several things you can do to eliminate this probl.