Hey there everyone!

Sorry I haven't been on in a while, I miss my OSP family! I have been super busy with things here recently,(i'm getting married in October!!) and haven't had much time to post.

Anyways, I was perusing some blogs today and I have to tell you, I am a HUUUUUGE fan of that warm, glowy beautiful sunflare. But I am not sure how to get it. Everytime I try to get sunflare, is get these really harsh, grotty looking circles/sunspots on my images- which looks cool SOMETIMES, but what happens when I want that really soft lighting?

The best example I have seen of this in awhile is by my friend, the fabulous Shan Renee. On her blog, she did a recent engagement shoot, (Dan & Lydia) and there is only a slideshow there or I would post an image here to show you what I mean. But if you watch the slideshow, you will see what I mean. Would anyone care to offer some insight into this? I would be greatly appreciative!!

Love OSP!
L.

The type of flare you are getting can vary from lens to lens. What lens are you using?

Most of the time I am using primes.Look at this post I did back in March. Unfortunately I don't have any stills of it, it's just a slideshow. But there is one towards the front of the show where I am from a crouching position on the ground and you can see the circles from the sunflare I am referring to.http://sweetmagnoliaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/03/amanda.html

How 'bout ask her?

It's really hard to get flare with primes. With a wide angle lens, you have more room to play and the patterns are exaggerated.

If you are canon, try with a 16-35... if on nikon, try a 12-24 or a 17-35.

Shannon... remember the "open" part of the open source photo.

I didn't mean it in a rude way, just wanting her to get her question answered

I thought I heard once to get that fun sun flare spots you gotta stop down a bunch, or something (see, I didn't have anything intelligent to add so I suggested asking a friend LOL). Whenever I've done it, my spots look more like alien heads

I agree that seems to work best with wide angles. When I try to get them I always shoot from below and angle my camera...seems to work best for me at least.

IMO, bigger dof=more defined flare.

Lauren... I work with Shan and we have both spent a good amount of time together trying to master flare.

To get flare its all about getting the light to go into your lens at an angle. So make sure you have the sun not going directly into your lens. Angle the camera a touch .

Also like others have said you will get different looking flare from different lenses. So to answer the "look of the flare" question. It will be based color and spots/sparkles on the lens.

You can make the flare more pointed and jagged (more defined) the more you stop down. But you can get flare shooting lenses wide open just as easy they just come out softer and not harsh.


Hope this helps a little.


Braeden

i've gotten really good flare results from my 28 1.8! I always start by filling my viewfinder up with the light and finding the best angle. I always try to get just a little in the left or right top corner and like how the results turn out.

Wow thanks guys for all your help! I didn't realize that DOF or lenses really had much to do with it, I thought it mostly had to do with what Braeden said, just how your camera is angled. But I have a shoot this weekend and i'm going to take a crack at it! I'll post something here when it's done and we'll see how it turned out.Oh and one thing I missed that I just went back and saw- when you stop down, you mean slower shutter speeds?

When people say stop down the mean closing your aperture up some.

Like.

f/2.8 stops down to f/4 and so on.

Ok, sorry! I know that was a dumb question. When I think stop down, I think backwards, I always forget that it means using a smaller ap. Thanks Braeden!

Think of your aperature as the iris of your eye... the smaller the hole.. (f/16 say), the less light you are letting in... the larger, (f 2.8, or 1.4) the more light.

UV filters actually help quite a bit too - about the only time I'll use one is when I want crazy flare.

What everyone is saying here, without really saying it (or even realizing it) is "the more pieces of glass and air spaces between the light (often the sun) and your sensor, the more defined flare." That's why zooms often work better -- there are more lens elements in them than primes. Also regarding filters. Another piece of glass and another air space. Wide angle primes tend to have more lens elements than normal lenses.

The deal with stopping down is that you get a more shaped flare (like a pentagon, hexagon, septagon, etc.) the smaller your aperture. The shaped is dependent on the number of aperture blades. Most Canon lenses have even numbers of blades (often six) and most Nikon lenses have odd numbers of blades (usually seven). Hasselblads are usually five, but that might have to do more with the shape of the shutter than the shape of the aperture.

Thanks Adam,

That explains a lot! Actually, that explains the crazies flare patter I ever got... from a tamron 28-300 zoom...

As usual- OSP comes through!! Thanks so much for all the great advice. If anyone has anything else to offer please post- this helps so many others too!

That explanation rocks Adam!!! Muchos gracias!!!