Project 365, Day 13 ("Sun", Day 4)

After shooting yesterday "sun", I decided to look at the weather, and of course, the sunny day was too good to be true, it called for overcast skies. Looks like we may be in for more snow soon. There's no such thing as snow flare, is there?

Anyway. I looked at the blinds as there was an annoying beam of sunlight hitting my eyes just the wrong way and I noticed this big flare. Removing the lens hood before shooting a sun flare is key.

The lens hood is there with its only purpose being to prevent sun flare, so yeah, it came off. Once you do this, you start to notice that 3 things influence the amount and quality of the flare:

1) where the sun is coming from, or rather, what it's shining through (the small holes in the blinds work wonderfully for this).

2) where you put the sun in the frame (rule of thirds anyone? Nicest flare seems to happen when the sun is exactly on that line) and

3) at what angle the lens is facing the sun. This one needs some experimentation.

oh let's not forget 4) Set your aperture to a really small opening like f/22. Anything f/16 and up will work, the higher the number, the nicer the sun burst, but don't forget you still need light for your photo as well.

And here it is:

Lens and camera settings:

50mm f/2.0 @ f/22, 1/80sec and ISO 400