Lens flares good or bad?

[ctcook]

Do the lens flares give the shot character, or distract you?

Model: NIKON D40
ISO: 250
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 18mm

[Nicole]

I like the lens flare in this shot.

Disclaimer: I like playing with lens flare on purpose.

Ok, so why do I like it in this shot? I think that it fits nicely into the space in the trees where you've positioned it. I can see actually standing there and having the light coming through the trees and wanting to capture it. You can almost feel the weather and time of day.

There's still something that doesn't quite grab me in the shot though, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. It might be the fence is competing with the sun for the subject because there's other subjects in between. But like I said, I'm not 100% sure what it is that's making me think that.

[ctcook]

Originally Posted by Nicole

I like the lens flare in this shot.
...I can see actually standing there and having the light coming through the trees and wanting to capture it. You can almost feel the weather and time of day...

LOL - That's exactly what I did. Is it that the photo seems off balance?

[dakwegmo]

I don't have a problem with lens flare when it's used for creative effect, as you seem to have intended here. However, the bigger problem isn't the flare but the increibly bright sun. It so overpowers the image that the beauty of the rest of the scene is difficult to make out. It's almost as if you have to shield your eyes to take it all in. Which is fine, I suppose, if that's what you were going for but it doesn't suit me. Incidentally, if you crop out most of the sun (from the left, to just left of the tree trunk) you've got a gorgeous landscape shot, that still captures the warm glow of the sunlight through the leaves, but creates a much more appealing image.

[Nicole]

Yep, it just seems a little off balance compositionally I think. I'd probably do the opposite crop of Marcus and I'd cut out the fence (which incidentally I like the way the light is on the fence, but I think I'd rather see more of the fence or none of the fence and focus on the sun, the trees, and the water).

[ctcook]

Those are both very good suggestions, complete opposites, and I love that. It's great to see how opinions can differ on what makes a good picture. I have done as suggested and here are the two results.

Crop Left:



Crop right:

[dakwegmo]

I think both are a great improvement, giving some balance to the shot. I sitll prefer my suggestion, but as you said you were trying to capture the sun coming through the leaves, I suspect the crop Nicole suggested is more in line with what you were after.

[charboucher]

Both nice versions but I like the cropped version better. the over powering sun, made the area directly beneath it lose detail and washed it out compared to the rest of the photo.

[laura.wilkerson1333]

I really don't like the lens flare.

It's a great shot, once cropped. I just really don't like the lens flare.

[fstopMike]

Here's my two cents. In the original, there are two things pulling at my eye. The sun on the left and the fence on the right. They fight with each other, so the crops work much better since they bring one focal point to the shot.