Sunflare. You likely either love it or hate it. I love it. I make a tremendous effort not to go overboard with sun flare photographs, but it’s hard. I used to be deathly afraid of the direct sunlight, but for quite some time now, I embrace it instead. I just got back from Colorado and please keep in mind that I was in skis when I took these photos and they are straight out of the camera (aka non edited). Yep, I took my camera on the slopes. I’m a little crazy, sure, but never the less, I wanted to give you an idea on how changing your f-stop or aperture can effect the look of your sun flare. As you can see, the difference between 1.8 and 2.8 is not really that big. However, when you take it to 5.6, you can really see a totally different look. It really boils down to taste and which you prefer. For this shot, for me, the 5.6 is the sweet spot. I love the look of the actual sun rays beaming down. The sun was VERY bright this day. I mean, piercing bright. I would just recommend being very careful when shooing into the direct sunlight. It can really be very damaging to your eyes, so just use some common sense.
