How do I make sunstars?

Laura

Laura

freespirittraveler
Joined
Oct 1, 2012
Messages
961
Just noticing how many cool sunstars are in everyone's pics. I know to use f16 or smaller and no filter, and try to get the sun slightly behind an object but how do you remove the flares? Seems I always get them. Is this done in post processing?
 
Different lenses have vastly different characteristics when it comes to sun stars. What kind of lens are you using?
 
Nick said:
Different lenses have vastly different characteristics when it comes to sun stars. What kind of lens are you using?
Click to expand...

Usually my Canon 24-105mm kit lens, but I've also used a 17-40mm Canon L.
 
I don't know what the 24-105's sun star is like but I've seen some nice ones with the 17-40. The best I've seen are with the 16-35 II. I'm sure others with more experience on the matter will chime in, but I think aside from using a slow aperture, the trick is to get intense light when only a bit of it is exposed. So like right as the sun breaks out from the horizon or around an object. Too much light can kill the burst as can light that isn't intense enough.

I recently picked up a 6D and the 16-35 and I'm stoked to start playing with sunstars as well. This is the first one I took and it was with most of the sun still visible so it didn't work out very well. At least not in the center where it was blown out.

great-salt-lake-3-jpg.10409


Some that I've seen from IntrepidXJ, lostlandscapes, Bill and some others around here have just been phenomenal. Hopefully they'll chime in.
 
you can also do moon stars which I didn't know before. I usually get the sun stars by surprise and never actually plan to have them.

Sunse-M.jpg


Niagara%20Moonrise-M.jpg



both shots were taken with a Nikkor 16-85mm lens, nothing special. Just the cheap one and no prime lens.
I guess with the prime lenses you can do a bit more, but I haven't tried it yet.
 
That's beautiful. I've been able to make sunstars, but not without a flare in the lens:

PenCanyon-2.jpg


See what I mean in the lower right foreground? Is this just the lens, do people get rid of these in post processing, was I too close to the subject, etc.? I'm using a Canon 5DMkIII, if that makes a difference w/the advice.

All help welcome!
 
I often have flares, too. I depends on the angle you're shooting and how high the sun is.
I usually have to remove the flares with Picasa. Some shots are really awful and I have flares everywhere, it take a while to get rid of all of them.
Sometimes I just move around a bit to get a different perspective which helped to reduce the flares a bit.
 
Pro tip for flare:

Use a tripod and take two shots in full manual. In the second shot use your finger to cover the sun and blend the two shots together in PS during post. Make sure you dont block out too much of the frame when you stick your hand in there. For this exampled I put my index finger in from the top right corner.


False Kiva by Summit42, on Flickr
 
Nick said:
The best I've seen are with the 16-35 II.
Click to expand...

This is one of the things that makes me yearn to go full frame. The 10-22 is a great little lens on the crop bodies, but the number of aperture blades means it makes some less than stellar sun stars (see what I did there?).
 
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