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Solar Flair (3)
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The sun has a warm emotional feel... but this can be reversed by putting a cold blue #80 or #82 series filter on the lens. This effect can also be simulated by shooting out-of-doors using tungsten balanced color transparency film in the camera... producing an intense cool blue cast in daylight conditions.
There are many instances where the composition cannot include, or when a wide angle-lens is not available to include, the sun in the picture. One way around this is to look for and use a "spectral highlight" reflected from the surface of a shiny surface such as a mirror, car window or reflective expanse of water.
With water, any ripples on the surface will produce a myriad of highlights which are often so bright they reflect off the lens' aperture blades producing a star effect. If these are in sharp focus the star effect is very pronounced but if the spectral highlights are out of focus they reproduce as soft aperture shaped highlights.
Their shape is a reflection of the number of blades in the aperture mechanism of the lens. An aperture with few blades, for example five, will make a five-sided out-of-focus highlight. A peculiar characteristic of reflex or mirror telephoto lenses which have a fixed aperture is that their out of focus highlights are reproduced as "doughnuts" or hollow circles.
Foreground highlights can also be created by using out of focus droplets of water on windows or in tree branches or foliage. Here the highlights are bigger if the lens is used in a close-up mode. The highlights will vary size, large in the background where they're further out-of-focus to pinpricks in size where they're close to the narrow plane or sharp focus.
In reality there's always the opportunity of capturing creative and interesting images of the sun regardless of what lens you're using. From fisheye to mirror telephoto and from macro to multiple-prism filters... the possibilities are wide-ranging. One word of warning though... don't try to look at a bright sun through any lens, wide-angle or tele, because it's magnifying effect can and will damage your eyesight! The sun in the main image of the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire, was made with a multiple-image prism plus a red filter mounted on a 200mm Nikkor telephoto lens when the winter sun was low in the sky. As that combination was not designed for each other the coverage of the lens produced only two, rather than six, images of the sun... but it works better for that being a simpler image whereas six suns would have been too confusing.
If prolonged viewing is necessary use a double thickness of over-exposed and fully developed negative film fitted into a spare 35mm slide holder and use it as a simple viewing aid. This device will give you a fix on the sun's position and show if it's about to be revealed or obscured by cloud. When it does come out... your solar flair can begin.
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