Flare and glare are two nightmares for photographers, and are especially evident when shooting outdoors. Flare is seen as unwanted rays of light, or sometimes halos and circular white outlines that are created by the diffraction of light coming from a light source. When light passes sharp edges or goes through narrow slits, the rays are deflected and produce fringes of light and dark bands. Glare, on the other hand is, light within the field of vision that is brighter than the brightness to which the eyes are adapted. When you shoot reflective surfaces such as water, snow, or glass, these surfaces reflect huge amounts of the light falling on them onto your camera sensor or film, causing those areas in your photos to be extra shinny.
Pros and Cons
Flare can compromise the overall contrast of your photos by the light fringes and halos it casts on your shots, and can also ruin them if the size of these halos are large, or their positioning is wrong.
And glare can produce huge clipped highlights that can affect the balance of your photographs, and distract from you main subject. Furthermore, extra shinny areas can be tricky for your light meter, fooling it to thinks the scene is much brighter that it actually is, causing it to underexpose for your images.
To control flare, watch the positioning of you and your subject relative to the sun, and try to choose the best position to eliminate sun flare. You can also get a hood and mount it on you lens when shooting outdoors in the sun, to keep unwanted rays of light from hitting your lens.
To control glare, be extra careful when including reflective, shinny surfaces in your compositions, and avoid using flash directly onto those surfaces. Also try using spot-metering, and take your readings off the darker main subject of interest rather than off the scene as a whole. This way you can avoid the overexposure your meter reads off your scenes, and have your focal points more defined and well-lit.
That said, flare and glare can sometimes create appealing, artistic results and add flair to your photography if positioned and manipulated the right way and used to your creative advantage.
Flare can add a very warm and indulging feeling to many landscapes, cityscapes, and outdoor portraiture. Glare, such as water glare of rivers and moving water, can give you a shimmering effect by the water’s reflection from the sun beating down on it. No question about it, water glare is one of the most thrilling items of photography.
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
of course i will. you dont even need to ask Ira =)
your so welcome !
YOUR SO COOL !
I really enjoyed reading this article and i really appreciate that you would take all this tim to explain outdoor photography.
Thank you
youre most welcome Azmi. im glad i could help =)
Flicker is really great when sharing photos over friends and families. I love the resize feature of Flickr.:”.
Good blog with some useful information. I will be back.
thank you hugh. i’m glad you like =)
Do you guest post? I’d be priviledged if you would guest post on my blog!
thank you Luigi for the nice words. Please contact me on diana@thedphoto.com and we can take it from there =)
Thanks for the well-thought article. I’m actually at work right now! So I need to go off without reading all I’d like. However, I put your blog on my google feed so that I can read more.
Great article, as always.
Here are my 2 flares
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krystiano/4623603062/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krystiano/4613645843/
these are nice krystiano . i especially like the tones in the first one. MORE POWER!! =)
Your’s is a point of view where real itnleglience shines through.
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Good Morning, your weblog is colored Many thanks for sharing.
greatphotography site.. I love your article.. can I repost it ? Thanks for the attention
Cheers!
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Great article. For reducing the glares, I read somewhere that we can use polarising filters as well. Have not given it a try though!