What is the Astral Effect?
The star effect is a special phenomenon of light diffraction. During the propagation process, when light encounters obstacles or small holes, the phenomenon of deviating from a straight line propagation is called light diffraction)
As far as the concept of photography is concerned, under normal circumstances, we usually try to avoid light diffraction;
However, the star effect is very cool and beautiful, and it is a lighting element of the picture, not the whole main body of the picture. Proper use of star will make the photo look more exciting.
How to photograph cool sun stars
The shape of the star effect is related to the blade design of the aperture. Some can form beautiful hexagonal star, while others can only form round and blurred star.
To form a beautiful star, it must be a regular polygonal aperture blade, such as a regular octagon. The more positive the shape, the more consistent the length of the star.
The number of starawns under different mirrors is different, which is mainly related to the number of aperture blades. The number of star awns of odd blades is the number of blades x 2; Theoretically, the starawns of even-numbered blades are still x 2, but the light will overlap, so the result is still the same as the number of aperture blades.
How to shoot the star effect?
Method 1:
The simplest and rudest way is to buy a starlight mirror, which can make every bright spot in the photo dazzle like a star-shaped flash.
The brighter the light point, the more obvious the starlight effect is. Point light sources such as street lamps, car lights, water reflections and candlelight will all produce very obvious starlight effects.
The star effect is produced by etching mesh-like thin lines on the surface of the transparent filter. Depending on the number of thin lines and the pattern formed by the thin lines, star-shaped flashes with different effects will be produced.
Some produce rice-shaped shapes, others are six-star shapes or cross-star shapes. Rotating the starlight mirror can also change the direction of the optical axis in the starlight pattern.
Special reminder: Starlight mirror can really bring dazzling effects. If used well, it can set off the atmosphere of the picture and increase its appeal.
But don't use it indiscriminately or abuse it. If you don't use it well, it will look messy. If you use it too much, it will give people the same feeling and have no new ideas.
Method 2:
With a small aperture, the size of the star is affected by the size of the aperture used when shooting: the smaller the aperture, the more obvious the star effect, and vice versa, the smaller the star, the shorter the lines.
Generally speaking, at night, starlight can be taken when the aperture is F/8. Of course, it is recommended to use a smaller aperture, such as between F/11 and F/22.
One thing to note is that it is easier to form dazzling stars by choosing small and strong point light sources, such as candles, city street lamps, and reflected light similar to water surfaces.
Reminder: As we all know, shooting night scenes often requires a long time of exposure, and shooting the star effect also needs to reduce the aperture, which means that the exposure time needs more.
At this time, a tripod is necessary for you! If there is no tripod, then do everything possible to find a suitable point that can support the camera and avoid vibration.
Because the sun is far away from the ground and small, the light is very strong, so the starlight formed is also dazzling.
However, the stronger the light, the greater the damage to the photosensitive element when the light passes through the lens, so safety measures should be improved before shooting and during metering.
1. Don't just take pictures of starlight, be careful to hurt your eyes and camera
The stars shot by others are dazzling and radiant, but long-term direct sun exposure may cause damage to the photosensitive element of the camera.
Even if usingHalf-lens camera, mirrorless camera or card machine framing, even pay attention to framing.
Although the aperture is F/22 when shooting, the lens will use a large aperture when framing. At this time, if the sunlight is too strong, the camera will be dangerous.
The safer way is to reduce the aperture, increase the shutter speed, reduce the exposure time and try to avoid direct light.
Special reminder: Don't look at the sun with your eyes at the viewfinder, which will severely burn your eyes. The correct way is to frame the view with the screen and just look at the screen.
2. Control exposure, image quality is very important
When the aperture is reduced, the exposure time will increase, especially when the light is relatively weak such as sunset. To ensure the image quality, the ISO value is not easy to be too large.
Control the exposure of the picture, and the effect of overexposed photos will not be obvious. Generally, during the day, when the aperture is opened to F/11, the star effect is more obvious. If you have high requirements for image quality, try not to open it to the minimum aperture.
3. How to take photos with accurate exposure
The small aperture of the lens is prominent, and the details in bright places are rich, but it is easy to lose details due to underexposure in near and dark places.
Therefore, when shooting, you can use flash to brighten the foreground to make the picture richer, especially when shooting portraits, you can use reflectors to fill the light.
Secondly, exposure compensation can be used. The best way is to fix the camera and shoot two or three pictures separately, and finally pass post-synthesis.
In addition, there is another trick worth trying: when shooting, it is easier to highlight the effect of starlight by using stones, trees, buildings, etc. as obstructions.
Finally, it is a question that many movie lovers are concerned about: Can mobile phones shoot such an effect?
Because the aperture of the mobile phone lens is fixed, it is basically impossible to shoot good-looking stars.
But it can still be achieved by using an external lens. If it doesn't work, just add a star mirror for mobile phones... Of course, the best way is to shoot directly with a camera.
