Althouse: Sun lines.

January 28, 2026

Sun lines.

This morning on Lake Mendota:

18 comments:

Howard said...: The proper term is lens flare.; 1/28/26, 8:44 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Cool!; 1/28/26, 9:09 AM
Kai Akker said...: "That's all there is. There isn't any more."; 1/28/26, 9:10 AM
Original Mike said...: Pretty cool.
I hear a Monty Python cartoon chorus in my head.; 1/28/26, 9:17 AM
Original Mike said...: "The proper term is lens flare."

I attempted to photograph the 1979 total solar eclipse (Minot, ND). Not knowing what I was doing, all of the images were way overexposed. But in a couple of them, in the corner of the image, was a small, multiple internal reflection image of the eclipse, properly exposed. Sometimes the artifact is your friend.; 1/28/26, 9:24 AM
Peachy said...: It looks like something in the distance is chopping up the rays.; 1/28/26, 9:30 AM
Peachy said...: But a cool effect from the "lens flare"
Thanks Howard.; 1/28/26, 9:43 AM
Phaedrus said...: Proof or proper focus. When I’m doing night time photos, astronomy and in my case, sunsets over our lake here in Dallas, I look for those flares to validate and then lock focus. Could be a street light next or or close to the subject, the 6 point stars from a long exposure nebula capture or as in the case, the points spreading from the sun. You can refine the sun to circular with a few simple enhancements in the native iPhone photo edit software (which I do for just crap stuff on the go) or more accurately (but equally easy) In Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, or great for just a couple quick edits (but the ability to work with just objects while avoiding layers) Photoshop Express. Always enjoy the morning sunset photos but don’t always comment. First blog I check each morning.; 1/28/26, 10:04 AM
Kai Akker said...: Ethel Barrymore's line. Here applied to a different institution in NYC.; 1/28/26, 10:24 AM
john mosby said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/28/26, 12:07 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: “The proper term is lens flare.”

Or you might just need to clean the lens.; 1/28/26, 12:32 PM
Jaq said...: If you were J.J. Abrams, that would mean that you took this picture in the future.; 1/28/26, 1:16 PM
Jaq said...: If you are ever at a solar eclipse, look at the ground under a tree; the leaves make hundreds of pinhole cameras, and there will be little images of the eclipse projected on the ground. Then take pictures of those. Not sure why this doesn't seem to work with the regular round sum, maybe it does, but the round shape is not distinctive enough to perceive, but I have pictures of the little eclipses projected onto my porch steps.; 1/28/26, 1:21 PM
Original Mike said...: "Not sure why this doesn't seem to work with the regular round sum, maybe it does, but the round shape is not distinctive enough to perceive, "

It does work.

We used a colander at last year's eclipse. It makes nice images of the partial phase.; 1/28/26, 1:41 PM
Rustygrommet said...: Very nice composition. Good work.; 1/28/26, 2:49 PM
Saint Croix said...: Here is the J.J. Abrams Lens Flare compilation video; 1/28/26, 6:07 PM
Saint Croix said...: Abrams actually talks about his love of lens flares. I watch that compilation video and my eyeballs are ready to bleed. But they way he uses them in movies has never bothered me. In fact, I think his films always look fantastic.; 1/28/26, 6:17 PM
Crystal Digitizing said...: amazing services digitizing services; 1/29/26, 1:17 PM