Capturing light rays

[Thrash]

Hi all,

I just have a quick question about trying to capture 'light rays' and by that I mean the visible wedges of light you can sometimes see in between clouds, trees, buildings, etc. and its something ive always wanted to get but rarely seem able to because either 1) theyre never there when I have my camera or 2) I just cant capture what I see with the camera

I saw a great scene the other day and it looked perfect, when I took a photo it still looked good but the rays werent there, I could see straightaway on the LCD so tried messing about with the metering modes but still couldnt get it right. I tried messing about with the aperture and stuff to in a desperate attempt to salvage a good photo from the light which was slowly changing and moving but alas, no shot captured what I wanted to.

Im sure it would be possible in PP to 'boost' it using dodge and burn but its not worth the effort for me, I only edit in Lightroom and even then its just twiddling with the bars, nothing else.
This is how the image I wanted came out, its probably not the best because the rays were very faint.

But I can manage to do it on my iPhone, just not my X100 or any other DSLR ive owned. Heres one from my iPhone:

So, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

 

[sbowler579]

You mean in shots like this one I captured one misty morning.


A walk in the mist. by SFB579 , on Flickr

The keyword here for this type of shot is, "Mist/Fog", ok two keywords. Bracket the image by 1 or 1.5 stops, that should help.

 

[petersmart]

In order to catch those rays of light you need to have a faint mist or fog in the air, or a small degree of smoke.

Which normally means getting up early before the mist evaporates in the early sun.
.

 

[Phil V]

The rays you captured on your phone weren't there, one of the quirks of camera phones is that the lens is often smeared with greasy fingers, so any direct light source will create that type of effect.

 

[happygolucky]

It's about positioning.

 

[Flightphoto]

It's what my Mrs calls a 'catholic sky', as Phil said, the ray of light is usually a flare from the plastic lens and a bit of hand gunk capturing light. For SLR's I find using a small aperture and a quick shutter speed usually works as it's not taking in too much surrounding light as the rays are a tad brighter etc.