Here is my most recent. Sunrise at Peachland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia Canada. I think this effect is really beautiful. I used to think that the only way you could capture this was with a special filter, but have since learned that you can create this effect just by adjusting your settings. I would love to see all your amazing sun star effects.
@dancingkatz@bernicrumb Hello, I will try to explain, but I am a beginner as well, so maybe someone else can give more input. The way I understand this effect to work is: You can get a star effect most times when you are capturing the sun shining through something like a tree or perhaps in a reflection like the water droplets, just by the angle you take the picture. When I took the sunrise shot above or this sunsetI used a narrow aperture of f/22 and a longer shutter speed (exposure). If you are like me it took me awhile to get that a high number like f/22 is actually a very small opening, so it is the opposite of what you would think. Also I did use a tripod on the sunrise so I could have a longer exposure and not shake the camera when i took the picture. This sunrise was taken handheld. I also always have a UV filter on my lense, mainly for the portection of the lense glass and this may help when shooting directly into a bright sun, but it is not considered a star effect filter. I hope this helps, If not I bet you can do a google search or youtube search for "How do i create a star like effect when taking pictures of the sun?"
The effect here is called diffraction. This is caused when a point light source, such as the sun, passes through a very small slit, and it causes the light to spread out as it goes through the slit.
You can replicate this effect by looking at a bright point light source (such as a torch or bare lightbulb) with your eyes almost closed. Your eyelashes will act as lots of very small slits, and cause you to see all kinds of lines and weird effects around the light source that you don't see when your eyes are open normally.
With our cameras, the diaphragm in the lens causes the exact same effect, except because this is a geometric shape, you get geometric lines coming out of your bright point light sources. The diaphragm is what the aperture control on your camera controls, and is a series of blades which the camera electronically adjusts a few microseconds before taking the photograph. You can actually determine the number of blades your lens has by the number of lines appearing to radiate from your point light source.
In order to maximise this effect, we want to make the light pass through as small a hole as possible, which means setting the camera's aperture to a high number -- for DSLRs, typically most lenses will max out somewhere between f/22 and f/32 or so (macro lenses may go higher), and for 'bridge' cameras, around f/8.
Because this reduces the light entering the camera, often a tripod, good technique when hand-holding the camera, or a high ISO setting will be required to reduce camera shake from the slower shutter speed.
Note that this effect works with *any* point light source that is significantly brighter than the surrounding area -- it doesn't have to be the sun, and it doesn't have to be daylight:
Just so you know, you lot are great! I've just been practising with my settings and taking photos of my sitting room light and managed to do it from how you described!
@abirkill You are with out a doubt one of the best teachers on here. I think I can speak for others when i say you are much appreciated for the time you take to explain different things to us all THX ;) I love that bridge shot of yours!
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I was happy with this one.
Multiple stars :)
How do you set your camera to make the star effect without a special filter? I'm still learning about the different things that my camera can do.
Mine didn't have as much of a star effect as many of these. They are all beautiful. Inspires me to work on this more. I forget to shoot into the sun.
You can replicate this effect by looking at a bright point light source (such as a torch or bare lightbulb) with your eyes almost closed. Your eyelashes will act as lots of very small slits, and cause you to see all kinds of lines and weird effects around the light source that you don't see when your eyes are open normally.
With our cameras, the diaphragm in the lens causes the exact same effect, except because this is a geometric shape, you get geometric lines coming out of your bright point light sources. The diaphragm is what the aperture control on your camera controls, and is a series of blades which the camera electronically adjusts a few microseconds before taking the photograph. You can actually determine the number of blades your lens has by the number of lines appearing to radiate from your point light source.
In order to maximise this effect, we want to make the light pass through as small a hole as possible, which means setting the camera's aperture to a high number -- for DSLRs, typically most lenses will max out somewhere between f/22 and f/32 or so (macro lenses may go higher), and for 'bridge' cameras, around f/8.
Because this reduces the light entering the camera, often a tripod, good technique when hand-holding the camera, or a high ISO setting will be required to reduce camera shake from the slower shutter speed.
Note that this effect works with *any* point light source that is significantly brighter than the surrounding area -- it doesn't have to be the sun, and it doesn't have to be daylight:
Here's my latest sun star result! =)
Wow, I am blown away by all these posts! You all are very talented ;)