One thing I do when I’m in a city is try and find as much local art as I can and photograph it. Most of the time it makes an ok picture, nothing really to write home about.
When I came across this piece in Asheboro, NC, I was able to make a decent frame, using a low angle, looking up into a blue sky and cleaning up the background. Not bad, but it could be better.
I decided to make another attempt and stop back when the sun was behind the sculpture and try and work it into the picture.
Again I tried for a low angle, trying to get a clean background and work the sun into the picture. I wanted it just at the tip of the finger.
No dice.
The sun was too low in the sky and, when I tried to position it at the fingertip, I started to get trees and buildings in the background.
I decided to give it one more try.
I shot a little bit earlier than my previous attempt and, bingo, I was able to get the sun positioned just at the fingertip and not have a cluttered and distracting background.
Here’s a rundown of my shots:
For my first attempt, I shot the picture with the blue sky at 8:50am. The sun was over my left shoulder.
For my second attempt, I shot the picture with sun behind the sculpture at 5:40pm. The sun was already too low in the sky to give me the angle I wanted.
For my last attempt, I shot the picture earlier in the day than the previous photo, about 4:25pm. This time everything lined up perfectly and I was able to get that little starburst at the end of the fingertip. To give me a little more definitive starburst, I closed down my aperture to f11.
You can use a special filter to give your light sources that starburst effect or you can stop down your lens to about f11-f22. The number of points in the starburst will depend on the number of blades in your lens.
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