Starburst Photos: Your Ultimate Guide

Catch the Perfect Sun-flare: Ultimate Guide to Starburst Photos

Capturing stunning starburst photos transforms an ordinary landscape or portrait into a breathtaking visual masterpiece. This can be accomplished whether shooting with a DSLR, mirrorless camera, or smartphone. Consequently, this creates those brilliant, radiating light beams- often called sun-stars or sun-flares- comes down to mastering light diffraction and exposure.

Starburst Photos vs. Haze vs. Backlight glow

Starburst Photos

This technique is strategic, utilizing diffraction. Basically, this causes light to bend around the lens glass into rays, rather than a hazy glow. TLDR: small aperture, high f stop, sun peaking through an edge.

Haze

Different from starbursts, this is an artifact that happens when sunlight directly hits the lens. But haze should be intentional, but it is subjective. Some people love it, some don’t.

Backlighting Glow

This is creating a halo, or a golden rim around the photo’s subject. You capture this effect by placing the sun behind your subject. Make sure no sunlight directly hits the lens. This effect is even better if the sun is diffuse through another medium- like tree leaves, or a bush.

Capturing Starburst Photos on an iPhone

While smartphones lack adjustable physical aperture blades, you can still produce eye-catching starburst photos through careful positioning and software exposure tweaks:

1. Lock Exposure and Dial It Down: Tap on the bright area near the sun to set focus and activate AE/AF Lock. Drag the sun slider icon down to lower the exposure value; underexposing slightly prevents blown-out skies and accentuates light rays.
2. Block the Sun: Position your phone camera so only a small sliver of sunlight cuts across an object, like tree leaves or a building edge.
3. Shoot in Burst Mode: Continuously shoot/hold down the capture button while adjusting for several angles until you find the right one.

Mastering Starburst Photos on a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera

Creating crisp rays with a dedicated camera relies heavily on optics and aperture control:

1. Lens Type: Wide lenses with a single focal point work best.
2. Use a Small Aperture (f/11 to f/16): Stop down your aperture to a high f-number. The smaller opening forces incoming light rays to bend around the physical edges of the lens aperture blades, creating distinct star points.
3. Partially Block the Sun: Position the sun so it just peeks past a hard edge, such as a tree trunk, mountain ridge, or a couple’s shoulder. Splitting the light source drastically sharpens the burst effect.
4. Underexposure: The starburst photo will pop more with lower light levels.

Composition & Timing Tips

• Shoot During Golden Hour: Target early morning or late afternoon when the sun sits low on the horizon, yielding warm atmospheric light and long, dramatic shadows.
• Frame with Intention: Place your main subject—such as a couple embracing or a field of sunflowers—in the midground, letting the starburst act as a glowing focal accent in the background.
• Glass Star Filters (DSLR only): Not required but amplifies the effect. Make sure you match the lens MM size to the filter size. I use this one (not affiliate).
• Apps for iphone: LensFlare, LensDistortion. Use these cautiously, they can appear fake. Good for accentuating a photo with already good composition.

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