Light Flare Flirt: How Haze and Sunspots Make Great Photos
A view from a sheltered bay in the spectacular Milford Sound in Fiordland, New Zealand.
Light flare, when controlled and deliberate, can lift even the most ordinary photos to a whole new level of creativity. Here’s how I go about adding light flare to create great photos.
Adding light flare, also called lens flare, is a fantastic way to produce creative, life-affirming and visually compelling photos celebrating the beauty of nature and life on earth. To add light flare into your own photos simply photograph directly into a bright light source, natural or artificial.
The visual effect that’s produced by light flare will vary from a build up of apparent haze, with a corresponding loss of sharpness and color saturation, to more pronounced and visually interesting effects just as sunspots.
I made this photo on a cruise through the magnificent Milford Sound on the South Island of New Zealand. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was stunning.
But I’d wager that it’s the light flare, more than anything else, that elevates this image above that of a typical snapshot.
Those circular sunspots, evident in the top right corner of the photo, are clearly a result of the light haze that’s reached the sensor directly through my camera’s lens.
A lot of folks hate this type of pictorial effect, and it’s fair to say I’m rarely a fan of it myself.
But when it works, it works.
I was in a really beautiful place but, being on a boat, my movement was limited in my search to make great photos.
Experience tells me that, when photographing directly into the light, the resulting image will likely appear flat, hazy and low in color saturation.
If I’d been able to move to the other side of the boat I would have ended up photographing with the light behind me.
That would have provided more even illumination across the scene and eliminated any of the adverse affects associated with photographing into the light.
However, photographing with the light behind me would have excluded the mountains from the composition, resulting in a far less interesting background.
It seemed like the best thing I could do was to break the rules and begin to flirt with the light flare that would result by photographing directly into the light.
In this case I’m glad I did.
The light flare provides an interesting visual element to the image, without impeding upon the illuminated and textured areas of trees and water throughout the rest of the composition.
To aid my cause I opted for a relatively wide-angle focal length lens to incorporate the side-lit trees on the left of the composition and the blue water in the near foreground.
Without those illuminated areas the scene would have been very bland and almost without color.
I also like how the eye travels from the larger trees, on the left side of the frame, and continues along the line of backlit trees in the distant centre of the composition, towards the mountain and the god-rays above it.
Detail of two candelabrum on the altar of St. Peter's Eastern Hill Anglican Church in East Melbourne, Australia.
When to Embrace Light Flare In Your Photos
The trick about photographing directly into the light is to know when to embrace haze, sunspots and light flare.
The simple answer is when doing so leads you to a more visually interesting and emotionally compelling result.
A lot of folks say you should never photograph into the sun or other bright light sources, unless you’re wanting to create a silhouette.
Haze, apparently, is to be avoided at all costs.
That’s because haze can adversely affect an image, resulting in a loss of sharpness, contrast and saturation. The result of which is a flat, lifeless image.
And no one wants that, believe me, I used to work at Kodak.
Together with fine grain, sharpness, contrast and saturation (low, medium or high) were the primary characteristics of film and paper that Kodak, and other manufacturing companies in the photography industry, used to describe and define their products.
So, while sharpness, contrast and saturation are key criteria in critiquing the success of a color photo, it’s the emotional impact of a photo that, ultimately, determines it’s success.
and the one or more primary focal points in the composition to which you want to direct viewer attention, that become more important considerations than technical perfection.
Balancing composition, narrative and symbolism with the atmospheric effect of light flair were key considerations in my mind when it came to making this photo of two candelabrum in St. Peter’s Eastern Hill Anglican Church in East Melbourne, Australia.
Fortunately, by embracing the haze, by photographing directly into the light, and employing selective focus I was able to ensure that the two candelabrum were recorded nice and sharp while allowing background haze to add a slight sense of mystery into the photo.
As you can see, the sharpness and highly textured nature of the two candelabrum are largely unchanged by the effects of the background haze.
That’s because they’re illuminated by a less intense light source coming from above and behind the camera.
Ultimately, it’s the relationship between sharpness and haze, together with the exaggerated scale between the candelabrum and visual elements, such as the out-of-focus parishioners and organ pipes, that makes for a successful photo.
About to Travel?
Should You Fear Light Flare and Sunspots In Your Photos?
Some folks see light flare and sunspots as a kind of blight, a pox on their pictures.
But impactful images are about much more than the usual technical and compositional attributes we so often associate with great photos.
Haze has the advantage of creating very atmospheric and emotive visual effects, which I think you’ll agree is an advantage in the case of the photos in this post.
If you want to avoid light flair, simply photograph with the light behind you. It makes sense to do so when you’re looking to make colorful, information rich images.
For a little more drama, and to enhance texture and detail in your photos, reposition yourself so that the light illuminates the scene from the side.
Once you’ve made all the safe pictures you need to adaquetely cover and event, a place you’re visiting or when making portrait photos, why not try making a few photos directly into the light.
This approach works really well when the sun is close to the horizon and unobscured by cloud cover.
You’ll lose nothing from the attempt, and you could so easily be rewarded with quirky, imaginative and memorable images.
What’s more, it’s a creative activity which means it’s fun to do so.
And what’s not to like about that.
Needless to say they are days when we all struggle to make great photos. It can be particularly disheartened when your luck seems to run out after traveling a long way to reach your destination.
Strangely, spending hours walking around once we arrive at our destination in search of fantastic light and great photos, doesn’t always help.
What’s the reason for your mileu?
Is it the weather?
Are you not in the right frame of mind to make great photos?
Have your own expectations brought on debilitating anxiety?
Of course it could be any of the above, or perhaps a combination of them all.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is to break our state and do something entirely different.
That might be putting our camera away and taking a break from photography for a while.
There’s no reason that wouldn’t involve a rest, some food or even a refreshing beverage.
Alternatively, if you’re in the city and you have time to spare, you could engage your senses and, perhaps, your imagination by watching a movie or by going to an art gallery or museum.
What I find to be particularly helpful is to seek out beauty. Doing so makes me happy and being happy is also the emotional state I find myself in when I’m making great photos.
Of course, beauty can be found anywhere.
In the face of a young child or a grandparent
In nature, whether it be the vibrant spring or the muted colors of fall leaves
Atmospheric flare, emitted from street lights, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The effects of haze become evident when you photograph into very bright light, day or night.
You might be interested to know that a filter, particularly one that’s partly covered in dust or fingerprints, is likely to enhance or extend those effect and introduce the appearance of sunspots into your photos.
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You might also like to try to incorporate haze into your photos, every now and again.
If you don’t like the color, size or amount of sunspots try shading the front glass element of your lens to reduce the haze and, quite possible, eliminate the appearance of sun spots.
Of course you should take care to avoid looking directly at the sun with the naked eye.
To do so through a DSLR camera is particularly problematic as the camera’s internal mirror can amplify the brightness of the sun and damage the eye.
So have fun but, as always, take care my friend.
