Penning Photography Daily

Point a lens at the sun, and you get some lens flare. Artifacts of how the light interacts between all the elements and surfaces in the camera’s lens.

Some flare is beautiful, some is downright ugly. I’ll put this in the either/or category. It depends on why the flare is there.

I intended for the flare to be there. That’s why I put this in the keeper pile. If I was taking a portrait, I’d put it in the pitch pile. That bit just above and to the right of the car? That’s the downright ugly part. The hexagons and circles usually can be controlled and can be used to create an artistic look. The orange with the flame, not so good.

In this case, I was wanting to get as much flare as possible out of that bit of sun peeking over the building. A salute to the end of one business day, a send-off to the beginning of another business evening. The cross-processing, selecting once color for the highlights and another color for the shadows, that’s an artists madness coming out. The regular color was OK, but this is very nice – to my point of view.

A flare for the dramatic.