Hi everyone! Here's a shot I took last August just below Bluebird Lake in the Wild Basin region of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. I ended up shooting in this location by accident after trying to capture alpenglow on the peaks behind Bluebird Lake. That's why the sunstar is blown out and the lighting is harsher than ideal. I took this shot with my old lens and without the lens hood I have now; thus the distracting lens flare. I'm really hoping to recreate this photo this summer with purpose and hopefully a better result. Do you have any tips for shooting a scene like this? Thanks!
Nikon D5100
Nikkor 18-55 mm
18 mm
f/18
1/40 sec
ISO 100
hand-held
Hi Crystal, I love the warm tonalities in this image as I sit here looking out my window at snow. I'm not good at speaking to controlling Lens flare. I suppose glass quality is key but not the number one factor. I mentioned this before, but I think hand blending sunstar images is the best way to convey sun stars. I have a feeling the sun stars you see in others work that you're trying to emulate are hand blends.
If I had to shoot this scene and not rely on a blend I would likely: arrive and be totally set up before the sun rises, including a remote trigger, set at f22, focus on the distant mountain or possibly the furthest away tree. Use an iso of about 800 and expose for the sky, knowing I would underexpose the foreground and bring out the shadows later in post processing.
Next, I feel is very important. Shoot this image the second the sun appears above the mountain vs allowing the full sun to appear. I've found shooting a small portion of the sun often reveals a sun star that matches a full sun. Plus you get the added huge benefit of a much easier dynamic range for your camera to work with. Thus, your shadows and highlights will not be extreme, but much more manageable to work with later in the processing piece.
Lastly, If interested in blending exposures, I recommend picking up Photomatix Pro. Its reasonably priced and has a feature called Exposure Blending. Its not the HDR blending the program is famous for, this feature just blends exposures. There are sliders that allow you to adjust to taste and the final results often appear as realistic as you wish. This program works best with minor dynamic range issues vs big shadow recovery and controlling big highlights. Just drop two properly exposed images into the program, one of the sky and one of the forground into the program and hit "blend." Its that easy. This program would likely do a nice job blending your above scene with partial sun vs the whole sun.
Crystal, it's a beautiful scene, but as John points out, a lens hood won't do you any good when the sun is in the frame -- it's well past the point of being shielded by the hood. As Kane points out, one way to cut down on lens flare is to shoot with different glass (by that, I mean a different lens). Particularly, primes have fewer elements than zooms, so they're less flare-prone in general.
Beyond Kane's general points on blending, the best way to kill lens flare is to shoot at least two exposures (on a tripod) and blend them. In one exposure, you block the sun entirely with something opaque like your hand; in the other, you keep the image unblocked. Then blend in the non-flared portion into the other image. Search "hand blend photoshop" either in Google or YouTube for tutorials.
Getting the right combination of shots takes some practice, so figure on a couple of days (if possible) where you go out in the morning, attempt to process in the afternoon or evening, and then going back out the next morning for another attempt.
It looks like a great shot to work towards; you could certainly practice similar work earlier before the wildflowers arrive.
Discussion
4 repliesNikon D5100
Nikkor 18-55 mm
18 mm
f/18
1/40 sec
ISO 100
hand-held
If I had to shoot this scene and not rely on a blend I would likely: arrive and be totally set up before the sun rises, including a remote trigger, set at f22, focus on the distant mountain or possibly the furthest away tree. Use an iso of about 800 and expose for the sky, knowing I would underexpose the foreground and bring out the shadows later in post processing.
Next, I feel is very important. Shoot this image the second the sun appears above the mountain vs allowing the full sun to appear. I've found shooting a small portion of the sun often reveals a sun star that matches a full sun. Plus you get the added huge benefit of a much easier dynamic range for your camera to work with. Thus, your shadows and highlights will not be extreme, but much more manageable to work with later in the processing piece.
Lastly, If interested in blending exposures, I recommend picking up Photomatix Pro. Its reasonably priced and has a feature called Exposure Blending. Its not the HDR blending the program is famous for, this feature just blends exposures. There are sliders that allow you to adjust to taste and the final results often appear as realistic as you wish. This program works best with minor dynamic range issues vs big shadow recovery and controlling big highlights. Just drop two properly exposed images into the program, one of the sky and one of the forground into the program and hit "blend." Its that easy. This program would likely do a nice job blending your above scene with partial sun vs the whole sun.
A lens hood would not help in eliminating the lens flare as you were facing directly into the sun.
Beyond Kane's general points on blending, the best way to kill lens flare is to shoot at least two exposures (on a tripod) and blend them. In one exposure, you block the sun entirely with something opaque like your hand; in the other, you keep the image unblocked. Then blend in the non-flared portion into the other image. Search "hand blend photoshop" either in Google or YouTube for tutorials.
Getting the right combination of shots takes some practice, so figure on a couple of days (if possible) where you go out in the morning, attempt to process in the afternoon or evening, and then going back out the next morning for another attempt.
It looks like a great shot to work towards; you could certainly practice similar work earlier before the wildflowers arrive.
Cheers!