How to Create a Starburst Effect in Your Photos
One of our vacations gave us an opportunity to spend some time in the woods. That’s not terribly surprising, because we love the woods and forests. This particular time, I was leaning against a tall pine tree, and I pointed my camera up toward the sky. There were oaks around us as well, and several other types of trees. One of the shots produced a lovely starburst effect. The sun was peeking over the edge of one of the leaves. Unfortunately, I was never able to find that photo after I got home. I decided to learn how to make it happen when I want it to happen.
The starburst effect is when a light source forms the rays of a star rather than maintaining its true shape. It can add a bit of whimsy to an otherwise ordinary image. It can also create a focal point for the shot if you use it with intention in composition or cropping. Today I’m going to show you what goes into creating a starburst.
These aren’t great images otherwise, because all I wanted to do was produce the starburst effect. They’re all overexposed, and I didn’t get a good position for the light source because of the terrain. But they do a decent job of illustrating the effect.
Ingredients of a Starburst
Whichever lens you use for a starburst, it will work best with a smaller aperture, somewhere between f/16 and f/22. However, the images I’m going to show you here were taken using a larger aperture. If your lens isn’t capable of f/22, don’t fret. You can still create these images.
Besides the size of the aperture, it can be useful to know the design and number of the aperture blades that move into position to create the opening size. An odd number of blades will produce twice the number of rays as the number of blades. An even number of blades produces the same number of rays as blades. You’re not likely to buy a lens just for this purpose, but if you have several to choose from in your collection of lenses, you can select for the attribute that matters most to you.
You will need to position yourself and your camera so that the light source is near an edge. The edge can be a horizon, the edge of a leaf, a line of trees, or a boat. Streetlights and reflections can also provide good options for creating a starburst.
Camera Settings and Setup
Before you try intentionally shooting a starburst, it’s helpful to understand the exposure triangle. I have written articles on ISO, shutter speed, and aperture at this site, and you might want to brush up on them. You’ll need to balance the exposure triangle for the bright sun as opposed to a lower-light scene. You can use the exposure meter to help you avoid “blown-out” highlights. Start with the aperture and adjust the other two settings to bring the image into balance.
We say that we have blown out the highlights when the white areas are so bright that they really don’t contain any digital data. It can be pretty difficult to adjust those areas, so if we can avoid that situation, we try to avoid it. However, it’s not necessary to prevent every instance of blown-out highlights. Sometimes it just has to be that way, so if the light source in your starburst shows blown-out highlights in your processing software, don’t lose any sleep over it if the rest of the shot meets your needs.
In the image above, the colors are too light, indicating overexposure. Everything that is white would be just “blank space” in the image file – that’s what we mean by “blown out”.
Using a tripod can be helpful, but I haven’t needed one for starburst shots. I actually appreciate the freedom to flow around to find the shot I want. I think, though, that if I were going to try to grab a shot of the sun peeking up over a mountain at sunset or sunrise, I would consider using my tripod.
Compositional Choices for Starbursts
I mentioned using trees to cut the light source, but you can try using other foreground objects as well, like trees, buildings, and rocks. My images show the starburst off to one side, which I would use if another item were the focal point. However, the starburst itself can make an attractive subject. You’ll want to keep the backgrounds quite simple to avoid losing the effect.
Common Problems in Starbursts and Fixes
Loss of Color
I mentioned blown highlights, but along with that, we often see muddy surroundings. By that I mean we can lose a lot of color when we’re pointing the camera at the light source. We can mitigate some of that using exposure bracketing or by adjusting the exposure itself. Exposure bracketing is out of scope for this piece, but the basic idea is that we take the same shot at three to five different exposures and blend them in processing. The objective is to maintain the details in one part of the image in one exposure that are lost in a different exposure.
Lens Flares
Pointing in the direction of the light source is also a great way to induce lens flare spots, as you see in my images. It can also show every piece of dust on the lens and the sensor, which is why we handle our gear very carefully to minimize the dust exposure. Most processing programs can handle small spots and specks.
Lens flare is caused by diffraction and reflection. We can minimize lens flare by reducing reflecting surfaces, like waves and windows. Just block them off with your hand or another object. You can also get some lens flare if you use a protective filter on your camera, as many of us do. It introduces another surface for reflections, so you may want to remove it if you’re trying for starbursts without lens flares. You can try just moving your hand around the area just outside the frame to see if you can block the reflections that are causing the flares. I generally keep a UV filter on my primary lens, and that’s always going to create that additional reflection point.
You can also reduce the possibility of lens flares by minimizing the size of the light source peeking out from behind its block. The smaller you make that light source, the fewer lens flares you’ll be dealing with. Personally, I like the effect of the lens flares in most of my starburst images, but I also like knowing how to prevent them.
Overdone Effect
You can take a starburst effect too far, and it can end up looking gimmicky. Take a lot of shots playing with different exposures and different positions. You don’t have to print all of them — or any of them! With digital cameras, we’re not paying for processing, so it’s easier to afford a lot of experimentation.
Post-Processing Tweaks
If your images are perfect straight out of the camera, that’s amazing! Really, it is. Most of us want to make some adjustments, though. You might want to apply subtle local contrast or clarity around the light source to make the rays more defined, without creating harsh halos. You may also want to adjust the overall contrast so that the image feels balanced, rather than letting the starburst overwhelm the scene.
This was my favorite of the shots I took that day, lens flares and all. I like the distinction of the rays, even though the rest of the scene is uninspiring. It’s nice to have another creativity tool available, though, isn’t it?
Your Turn
I have a couple of questions this week. First, what does this inspire you to try? Second, have you ever had an image that came from a happy accident? Doesn’t have to be a starburst, just anything that surprised you after you took it. Share it in the comments!
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