AustralianPhotography

Hi Bebe,

Making photos into the light can create some wonderful effects but it can also create some  difficulties.

One of the main challenges is flare. Flare is caused when excessive amounts of light from one particular point in the picture, in this instance the sun, scatter about the lens and degrade other parts of the scene. In mild cases this just causes a softening in the contrast of the photo but more often, as with this photo, you will get coloured blotches of light popping up around the image.

There are different ways of trying to manage flare, like placing the light source directly in the middle of the photograph or eliminating the light source altogether; but neither option really helps you when you want to make a photo like this. You just have to work with it.

Perhaps one of the best ways of managing flare is simply to make sure that your lens is clean and there are no unnecessary filters on the lens that could create internal reflections in the lens.  

It is worth knowing that getting rid of flare is a lot easier now than it used to be in the days of film.

One tool that is useful for getting rid of flare is the Content Aware Fill tool in Photoshop. Just select the area of flare that you want to get rid of.. hit the delete button and when the dialogue box says “Do you want to use Content Aware Fill”, just hit the yes button! It’s that simple and most of the time it does a reliable job.

Have a look at the example below and you will see what I mean.

Keep on shooting into the light… it breaks the rules and that's who it's worth pursuing!

Cheers,

Anthony

Image Doctor's edited version