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Glow or sparkle? Two artistic aperture choices for sun flare & specular highlights

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When you think of lens aperture on your camera – do you think about exposure, or do you think about artistic interpretation?

Yes, aperture is one third of the exposure equation (with shutter speed and ISO making up the other two variables), but your choice of aperture should primarily be an artistic choice.

If you’re moving up to a DSLR from a mobile camera, you probably haven’t really thought about aperture too much (since phones have a fixed aperture) – or if you have, it’s in terms of bokeh (wider aperture = more bokeh…yay bokeh), but your choice of aperture has a big impact on the look of your captured image (beyond just bokeh).

In this article, I will show you the difference between using a small, closed aperture and a big wide open aperture when it comes to sun flare and specular highlights.

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Fake Sunshine Glow – Warm Up Your Fall Photos With Strobe Sunlight

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I was just raking up the last of the fall leaves and though that I’d like to get some photos of the kids jumping in my big leaf pile.

The image I had in my head was one of those amazing fall days where that gorgeous warm glowing late day sunshine was back-lighting the leaves and highlighting the kids.

Problem was: by the time I was done raking the leaves, it was petty late in the day so most of my yard was in shade, and the ambient light that was available was coming from the wrong direction.

To get the photos I wanted, I decided to fake that late day warm sunshine glow with strobe sunlight. In this article, I will show you how to do it yourself (its actually pretty easy to get great results)!

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