How to give light sources the star effect

[stupar]

I know there's two ways of doing this.

1st is to use a filter pre shoot and the 2nd is to add them in post shoot.
For those that use this effect what way do you apply yours?

With the filter, how does it distinguish between different light sources?
With a plug-in is it fairly simple process to apply?

Does anyone know of any free/inexpensive PS plugins that can do this?

Many thanks!

 

[swag72]

How about the third way - Achieving it in camera when you take the shot!

Make your aperture as small as possible ie F22.

 

[stupar]

How about the third way - Achieving it in camera when you take the shot!

Make your aperture as small as possible ie F22.

Ah, never gave that a thought! Thanks!

 

[arad85]

With the filter, how does it distinguish between different light sources?

It's a diffraction grating so intensity of light is the differentiator.

There's a tutorial on how to do it manually in Photoshop here: http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/star-filter.html

BTW, not sure reducing aperture will give you star effects as you'll be diffracting off the iris blades which aren't across the frame. Maybe wrong though

 

[trencheel303]

stopping down gives you stars. The more you stop down the more pronounced the stars are, and the longer each point is. f/22 and a long exposure will probably be overkill, I'd say go for F11 ish.

 

[mickyc1]

I bought an 8 point star filter from ebay. Its awful

 

[Yv]

I bought an 8 point star filter from ebay. Its awful

I remember having one in the days of film, it was awful then too Like trencheel says, stop down and starbursts will...errr....burst :|

 

[mickyc1]

I never knew about stopping down, thats great to know!

 

[Yv]

some lenses are better [or worse, depending on your preference] than others for a starburst - my Sigma 24-70 is especially bursty, even quite open, such as f4, when using long night exposures. Generally speaking though, all will acheive it to some extent if you getnice small apertures.

 

[Cistron]

Also, the more aperture blades, the more points on the star.

 

[stupar]

Thanks for all the info folks.

Think I will take the camera out tonight after dark and experiment.

Also noticed that the hitech slot in filter for this effect is only a tenner in 85mm format. May be worth picking one up at that price.

 

[trencheel303]

Also, the more aperture blades, the more points on the star.

Not quite sure that's right... odd numbers of blades give double their amount of star points, whereas even numbers give their own amount. i.e., 7 bladed aperture will give 14 point stars whereas an 8 bladed will give 8 point stars. At least that's what I got told.

 

[33L]

Not quite sure that's right... odd numbers of blades give double their amount of star points, whereas even numbers give their own amount. i.e., 7 bladed aperture will give 14 point stars whereas an 8 bladed will give 8 point stars. At least that's what I got told.

I think that might be true. have heard of this too.

 

[trevorbray]

To get this effect on bokeh

You could try this.

 

[trencheel303]

Fantastic!