How to Create a Sun Star Effect in Photography

When I met George Lepp, Canon Explorer of Light, many years ago at a seminar, one of the questions I had then as an amateur was how to create a sun star effect. The answer was pretty straightforward, but I've added some tips. The kicker in the snow scene image is the sun star. To create an effect like this, start with a lens with a wide angle lens like 24 mm or shorter. The longer the lens, the less impact the effect will have. Start with the aperture fully closed, which usually produces the best effect. Experiment until you find the star effect you like best. For exposure, I would expose for the available light. In other words, for our sample photo above, I would set an exposure for a sunny day (some variation of the sunny 16 rule) or use an incident meter. You want to expose for the light illuminating the scene, not the light reflecting off of the scene. One way to get exposure without an incident meter is to spot meter off of a plain area of a blue sky (without clouds or the sun) and then lock in those settings. To do this, you need the longest lens you have and to set your camera to spot metering. Point the camera high in the sky for the deepest blue, away from the sun or other distractions that would throw off the camera's reflective meter. Ideally, you would set the exposure in manual mode so the settings don't change as you recompose the shot.

Tips to create a sun star effect The sun should not be fully visible in the frame. In this case, I partially hid the sun between a tiny hole formed between a branch and ice buildup. You could hide the sun partially behind a tree or building, for example. You don't want to hide the entire sun or you may lose the star effect. To help previsualize the star effect, hold the aperture preview button on your camera to stop down the lens, and position the sun where the star effect appears to be greatest. Then shoot. There are different ways to meter every image. Here I used an incident meter and talked about spot metering off of plain blue sky, but you could also spot meter a highlight (bright white cloud) and open up 2 to 2.5 stops.

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