Capturing sun rays

[ricolarr]

Hi guys, firstly happy lunar new year! I have a noobie question that I hope someone can give me a definitive answer.

I've read up on articles on how to capture sun rays.
So firstly, these are a few information I can gather.

1) Either you're lucky, and the early morning's mist is superb.
2) Using spot metering (Which I'm still a little uncertain about)
3) Capture the exposure value just beside the sun, then change to manual and key in the values)

Oh I almost forgot, I've always wanted to capture streaks and burst of sun rays just like this.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapstrake/1400911854/
(Considering it is not my photograph, I'll just post the link instead of putting the picture here.)

 

[ricolarr]

=/ no one to help me? :dunno:

 

[billycadiz]

Hey go out and shoot the clouds and the sun rather than looking at your monitor ayt?
That is a lucky shot, sooner or later you will also capture those...

 

[ricolarr]

Erm I did, but I've come to chance upon some photographs where the sun is not covered by clouds, and yet elaborate rays are still visible. I took a few shots, sampling with spot metering, and HDR. I only get a bright ugly spot in the sky. :cry:

 

[ricolarr]

Any more advices guys?

 

[HTCahHTC]

try blending the exposures together and do some dodging and burning in PP.
HDR is possible, but not too much of it.
maybe you should post the pictures you've taken up here and let us help you (if you don mind).

 

[Filbertoh]

Hey go out and shoot the clouds and the sun rather than looking at your monitor ayt?
That is a lucky shot, sooner or later you will also capture those...

yes i agree .. u need to go out shoot more... its not the settings u learn here that get the shot.. but rather the cloud quality plus weather plus yada yada ... u know wad i mean.. environment helps a lot in taking nice pic =) try the settings when u see nice the right clouds?

Just my newbie 2 cents =)
Happy Cny and Shootings..

 

[catchlights]

it's not possible to capturing sun rays every time.

if you didn't see it, you can't

if you can see it, it may be possible.

sun rays will only show when the lights pass thru dusty or misty air. and to make it more pronounce, it has to be against darker background.

our human eyes able to see wider range compare to what camera able to capture on a sensor. and the sun rays has to be very contrast as in our human eyes in order to capture it on sensor.

so actually it is very simple, as long you know how to capture sunrise or sunset, all you need is to do is wait for the right moment.

 

[Rashkae]

It's astonishing what a search can find:

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=401305&highlight=capture+sun+rays

 

[LifeInMacro]

So far I don't have any big issue (except some expected lens flares) on shooting sun rays. Books usually say spot meter the clouds, etc. But I just got lazy (or lucky) and shot with Evaluative metering mode with AEB. Then, if necessary I'll use HDR merging to emphasise the rays. For HDRs, I use Photomatix Pro and a bit of trial n error is required to get the result you need. There are some examples of sun ray shots on my Flickr.

Cheers!