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Starbursts can be a wonderful addition to your landscapes and night scenes. Set a narrow aperture, like f/22, point your lens towards any small, bright highlight, such as the sun or a street lamp at night, and it can become a beautiful star shape.
But the technique poses a dilemma. The narrow aperture results in diffraction, wherein light spreads out along the aperture blades, causing the pinpoints on the star – known as ‘diffraction spikes’. So in this instance, diffraction is our friend, but more often than not, it’s the enemy, because it also results in a softening of fine detail. So do we capture the starburst and settle for a softer scene, or prioritize image sharpness?
With a bit of simple image blending in Adobe Photoshop CC we can have the best of both worlds. We shoot one frame for the starburst, then another at a wider aperture nearer to the lens’ sweet spot for the rest of the scene. Then we blend them for a stunning starburst without compromising on image quality.
However, with wider apertures we can compromise our depth of field. So if we want front-to-back sharpness, we may need another workaround. Here, after shooting for the starburst at f/22, we took two more frames at f/8, one focused on the distance, the other on the foreground, We blended all three for ultimate sharpness, along with that gorgeous sunstar for stunning results.
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