achieving sun flare

kylee asked me a while back to talk about sun flare, and i mentioned it in this post, but i decided it was worth it's own post:) it's pretty easy (if you're already shooting in manual and understand basic exposure)

1. first, definitely use your screen display rather than the view finder or you'll fry your eyes.

2. shoot with a really small aperture, i'd suggest f/13+. i think i shot the photos in this post at f/20. you have to sacrifice shutter speed.

3. to get the orb, point the camera directly at the sun. move it around until you see it on your screen. you WILL see it!

i shot the photos on this post today around noon, my favorite time to do it is around sunset.. gorgeous colors:)

also, if you try it out, post some photos online and share a link in a comment, i'd love to see what everyone comes up with!!

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gavin + lulu, preview.. ALSO photoshop tips! <--i know you want to know!

UM, these two are amazing. i had so much fun traipsing around with them in absolutely bipolar elements. literally the moment we stepped out of our cars to begin the shoot it started raining, and for utah it was a LOT of rain. no, we didn't subject ourselves to a torrential rainfall, but all things considered it was pretty wet! then half way through the shoot the sun came out. i have never met anyone who could pull off being fabulous no matter what as well as lulu did. in such conditions, most women would have postponed the shoot, and if not, they would have ended up looking like drowned rats. not lulu: if her dress didn't give it away, you would never be able to tell we got soaked. both of them were total naturals in front of the camera, plus they made me laugh. i had more fun than should be allowed.. this is supposed to be work? i love my job:) p.s. i can't wait to post the whole session, it'll be delicious.











a lot of people as me what i mean when i say i edit photos. for an engagement shoot i include up to 50 edited images. what difference does photoshop make? take a look, straight out of the camera on the left, after photoshop on the right:


TIP FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS/PHOTO ENTHUSIASTS: i like to use photoshop actions because it makes editing SO much more efficient! also, actions help me keep my photos looking more uniform. i try to use the same look the photos for each session so that they flow as a set. my list of favorites includes a few from totally rad actions (i use "yin/yang" and "oh snap" on almost every single image i edit, i also frequently add a small dose of "get faded (winter)" for good measure), a free action from pioneer woman's action set #1 ("lovely and ethereal" minus gaussian blur), "retro vintage" from florabella vintage actions set, and a couple of my own concoctions. I typically have actions like "retro vintage" and "get faded (winter)" on very low opacities so as not to over-edit. i prefer enhancement to total reconstruction:) other indispensable tools are dodge/burn, brightness/contrast adjustments, curves, and color correction. Pin It Now!