I taught a 2-hour presentation in London, Ontario on Thursday night. The London Camera Club made me feel welcome, and was very receptive to my message about flash photography. Lots of members bought my e-books, and several signed up for my flash courses on 16 and 23 October.

(Both courses are now full: if you wanted to take part, send me an email: I will repeat the workshop again in the next weeks, if there’s demand).

Nows for tonight’s tech tip. Look at this image from today, when I was shooting a horse farm in Adjala, Ontario:

I shot against the sun, so I used a flash to light up the Camaro—else, the wheel would be dark.

Consider the star-shaped reflection in the bumper. And there’s the star shaped sun rays. Why the star shape?

The answer is simple:

If you want a distinct star shape in your hot spots, stop down to a small aperture (high f-number).  So this was shot at f/16.  And one more tip: shooting against a light source like this, leave off your “protective” lens filters. Otherwise you will not get this: all you will get instead is flare.