Sunstars
© 2008 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

Blind Man's Last Sight. 20-35mm f/2.8 D AF, f/22, -1 stop exposure compensation.

July 2008

Sunstars are rays of light coming off the sun, or any other bright point of light. These points of light can be brilliant reflections off chrome bumpers and windshields, or streetlights at night.

Sunstars become more visible at smaller apertures, like f/22.

Digital images including the sun often wash out the sky, hiding sunstars. If your sky turns all white, instead of blue, around the sun, use Exposure Compensation (the +/- button) to darken the image so you can see the star against a darker sky.

The number of points you'll get depend on the number of diaphragm blades in your lens. You'll get stronger points if the blades are straight, and more diffuse spikes, if any at all, if the blades are rounder at the aperture used.

Here's how many points you'll get:

Each blade flicks light in both directions from a point of light. The number of rays is double the number of blades if it's an odd number. If the number of blades is an even number, the alternate rays line up on top of each other, so the number of rays equals the number of blades.

PLUG

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