Okay, decided to give this sunflare thing a try today. Been seeing those cool starburst effects in photos and thought, why not? The sun was out, seemed like a good enough reason.
Getting Started
So, I grabbed my usual camera. Didn’t fuss much with gear, just the standard lens I had on. Checked the time, figured the sun was still pretty high, maybe a bit tricky, but I wasn’t gonna wait around all day. Just wanted to get out and mess with it, you know?
Went down to the local park. It’s got plenty of trees, figured they’d be good for blocking the sun just enough. That’s the idea I had, anyway – get the sun peeking around something.
Trying it Out – The Fiddly Bit
Alright, so I found a spot near some big trees. First thing, pointing the camera anywhere near the sun is bright. Like, really bright. Had to be careful not to stare straight at it through the lens for too long. Used the screen mostly.
My first few tries? Pretty rubbish. Just a big blown-out white spot. Okay, gotta be smarter about this.
- Tried moving so the sun was just kissing the edge of a thick branch. That started to look a bit better.
- Then I remembered reading somewhere about the aperture – that hole thingy inside the lens. Made the opening smaller. Clicked the dial a few times. That definitely helped! Started seeing some rays, like actual defined rays, not just glare.
- Moved around a LOT. Crouched down, stood tall, shifted left and right by tiny bits. It’s amazing how moving just an inch changes everything. One second, no flare. Next second, bam, something interesting.
- Took a ton of photos. Like, way more than usual. Most were probably junk, but I was just trying to catch that right moment.
- Sometimes I’d half-block the sun with a thicker part of the tree, sometimes just let a tiny bit peek through leaves.
Honestly, it was a lot of trial and error. Point, shoot, check the screen, adjust position, change the aperture thingy again, shoot again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Squinting a fair bit too, even with sunglasses.
Looking at the Results
Got back home, loaded the pictures onto the computer. Yeah, a lot of duds, like I thought. Overexposed, underexposed, weird green blobs sometimes. But! A few actually turned out okay. Got some nice defined rays shooting out from behind a tree trunk in one, and another cool one through some leaves.
It wasn’t exactly easy, felt a bit like I was guessing half the time. But it was fun to experiment. Seeing those rays pop up on the screen when you get the angle just right is pretty satisfying. Definitely something I’ll mess around with again, maybe try it when the sun is lower, like evening time. Worth the effort, I reckon.
