Sunshine glare photography help (info inside)

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jadyn
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Im quite new to photography but I want to concentrate more on sunshine style photography, the glare and warmth!

Even sunrise capturing frost on a bicycle for example.

Not sure if anyone watches it, but the series 'Made in Chelsea' even though it's captured through film they have parts where it shows street signs or period properties with the sun glare, the style of film is what I want to capture on picture.

I have a 400d with stock lens but have a cheap and cheerful 50mm 1.8 on the Xmas list (if this is a better lens to suite the style I'm after)

Any help would be awesome, thanks in advance :)
 
Can you post up a pic of what you mean? I can think of many ways sun flares of objects could be caught.

BTW... never seen Made in Chelsea, but I'd bet my house it's not shot on film.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Can you post up a pic of what you mean? I can think of many ways sun flares of objects could be caught.

BTW... never seen Made in Chelsea, but I'd bet my house it's not shot on film.
Click to expand...


Film/video I meant.

Well after searching for pictures, you wouldn't believe I have just stumbled over this..

http://simplykierste.com/2012/04/photography-with-lei-capturing-sun-flare.html

Havnt read through it yet, but guessing by the pictures and content it will help me also, but any information would be brilliant :)
 
This is the result of lens flare lowering contrast. You get this by shooting into bright light. That didn't sounds like what you were referring to though, with sun on frosty bicycles etc.
 
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Sorry, I was regarding the glare, but while catching the frost on a bike..

Perfect example (just with more glare)



But maybe a closer shot with details of the bike etc

Just love glare/warmth shots
 
I'm nt seeing any sun flare in that above shot. Looks quite clean in fact, but I know exactly what you are referring to. You just have to have a lot of sunlight/light hitting the front element of the lens. Ironically, using a lens that's a bit crap will probably be helpful.
 
This is something I do whenever I can on my lifestyle shoots, and clients love it (well most).

Firstly this type of photography is not really suited to a beginner, but hey, no harm in trying:)

You need to either shoot in manual or dial in compensation if you want to shoot in auto. The reason is the cameras meter will be fooled by the bright light and consequently under expose. You've also got the added problem of your Auto focus either working very erratically or not at all, so again, you may end up focusing manually.

TBH as you've got digital, just go out in the low sun and play, have fun :)
 
Sunset can produce good pictures, don't know if this is the type of thing your after

dsc8539s.jpg


Realspeed
 
What you're after generally falls under the contre jour bracket, it's not hard to do but some caveats:

Modern lenses have put the onus very much on removing all flare and ghosting from images, but it doesn't make them perfect. The cheaper and nastier the lens the more flaring and lacking in contrast you'll get. Some lenses produce some really horrid flare patterns (my Sigma 17-70 for example) and some have a really classic feel to them.

My advice would be to find some old manual lenses and get the appropriate adapter to use them on your Canon, which is capable of taking an adapter for just about anything. I'd suggest a Minolta Rokkor PF 58mm f1.4 as a good one, it has a very smooth drop in contrast and wide open has a wonderful smooth softness too, I think you'd like it if you liked the work in the blog you linked to.

Lenses to avoid would be anything by Pentax in the SMC era and Olympus Zuiko MC lenses, they're just too damn good and don't flare at all.
 
Are we confusing glare with flare? They are different and distinct things.

Glare - difficulty of or discomfort in seeing in the presence of a bright light

Flare - extraneous light spots and/or areas of low contrast caused by reflections and scattered light in the optics of a lens (often caused by bright light sources in or near the edge of the frame)
 
If the light is bright enough, any lens will do this, and I wouldn't say you have to source old lenses at all. Try the ones you have. They all exhibit different characteristics. Older lenses are just more likely to do this is all.
 
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