Why do my mobile phone images have a ghostly glow?

Question

I'm not too sure if a setting or update has changed the quality of my photos, or if the glass lens protector I have put on may be causing this.
I have a Samsung S10 5G. It used to take amazing photos, however for ages now there is a glow around the edges or near bright colors, they kind of bleed into the surroundings.
Here is an old photo; around this time all images had a similar clear kind of quality:

However, now all my phone images have this strange glow similar to this image below, and it makes the images look terrible! I have tried resetting the camera settings and this doesn't seem to help.

This is the camera protector I have. I'm not too sure if the quality of glass may be causing the light to bounce around before it hits the sensor?
Any ideas?

osullic · Accepted Answer

The effect you are seeing is usually called "halation" or "bloom", and on the face of it, it seems obviously caused by the lens protector. Take it off, and compare.
Is it worth using a protector?
By the way, you can actually buy filters to intentionally produce this effect, e.g.
https://www.shopmoment.com/cinebloom-diffusion-filters
https://tiffen.com/collections/diffusion

Michael C · Answer

It's almost certainly the protector and/or smudges on either the protector or the original surface before the protector was applied. Most smudges are caused by skin oil in fingerprints. The oil on the surface of a lens causes light striking it to be dispersed. Sometimes this effect is desired, and there are even specific filters made to give this halation effect.

Answered by Michael C on April 20, 2021

Why do my mobile phone images have a ghostly glow?

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