How to create little lightbursts like this?

[yensid]

A few days ago, I saw this beautiful photo from one of my Flickr contacts, Groucho Dis:
[]Twinkings stars outside Spaceship Earth (Explored!) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and ever since then, I've been wondering how to create those little lightbursts. I'm aware that he has a nice DSLR while I just have a Canon Powershot SD790 (a point-and-shoot) and that he also used a fisheye lens, but even after experimenting with different long-exposure settings I just can't seem to create the spokes on the lights.

Or- was this added in processing? If so, could you be so kind as to share with me how to do this? I have GIMP, but even if you can't tell me exactly how to do it I would be happy with even the name of the processing type.

Thank you so much everyone! Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ballistics]

I don't think it was a fisheye, but an uwa lens @10mm.
He shot it at f/13 with a 15 second exposure.

Stopping down is usually what gives you that star effect.

 

[Derrel]

Sunstars

 

[TCampbell]

They're using a 6-point starlight (star-effect) filter to create the diffraction spikes. Sometimes also called a cross-screen filter because when you look at it, you'll see a screen of fine wires in the glass.

You can find them here: Star Effects| B&H Photo Video

You can also photoshop them in (though the photoshop'd version doesn't look as good): How to Duplicate Professional Camera Filter in Photoshop

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Star filter that others mentioned. Some cameras even have a built in software to do it in camera processing to give you that look.

 

[480sparky]

I don't think it was a fisheye, but an uwa lens @10mm.
...........

He says it's a FE in his text,

you pretty much need to use a fisheye.

plus you can see the curvature of a FE in the lines in the sidewalk as well as the curb.

 

[Ballistics]

I don't think it was a fisheye, but an uwa lens @10mm.
...........

He says it's a FE in his text,

you pretty much need to use a fisheye.

plus you can see the curvature of a FE in the lines in the sidewalk as well as the curb.

Ah good call.

Exif shows

10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Fisheye zoom

 

[Derrel]

That fisheye zoom is a pretty cool lens. NOT many fisheye zoom lenses have ever been offered. Might actually be worthwhile, compared to the same-same-same look given by fixed focal length fisheyes...having the ability to zoom at such a short starting point of 10mm way out to 17 would be pretty cool. When the concept first hit the market, Herbert Keppler of Modern photography magazine wrote several articles discussing just how totally COOL that concept and lens was.

I do not think this is actually a cross-star filter effect. I mean, the close lights have the cross-star effect, but there does not seem to be that tell-tale "haze" around the stars that screams "cross-star filter was used!". I own several cross-star filters, and have used them a lot, and to me this doesn't look like any cross-star filter effect I have seen before....but then again...it could be, or could have been manipulated and cleaned up in post processing. What makes me think it is not is that only the closest lights have the effect, and the many other more-distant ones seem to show no effect. I suppose it could have been done with the filter applied only across part of the image area. Regardless, it is a nifty photo.

Now that I have spent a few more minutes looking at his other SMC Pentax 10-17mm shots, those photos show the same,exact, strong 6-pointed sunstars on bright point sources of light. I think this shot was just a "straight" rendering from the 10-17mm SMC Pentax fisheye...its diaphragm produces six-pointed sunstars...

 

[Groucho]

A few days ago, I saw this beautiful photo from one of my Flickr contacts, Groucho Dis:
[]Twinkings stars outside Spaceship Earth (Explored!) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

and ever since then, I've been wondering how to create those little lightbursts. I'm aware that he has a nice DSLR while I just have a Canon Powershot SD790 (a point-and-shoot) and that he also used a fisheye lens, but even after experimenting with different long-exposure settings I just can't seem to create the spokes on the lights.

Or- was this added in processing? If so, could you be so kind as to share with me how to do this? I have GIMP, but even if you can't tell me exactly how to do it I would be happy with even the name of the processing type.

Thank you so much everyone! Your help is greatly appreciated.

I just happened to stumble across this while doing some Googling... yes, that's my photo, and I'm really glad that you liked it! There is another version that I took almost two years earlier here, but with a portrait orientation:
Epcot's sparkling sidewalks | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Yes, the photo was taken with a fisheye lens - the Pentax fisheye zoom, as was pointed out by Derrel. I generally don't like the look of a "normal" rectilinear UWA lens, and the few times where I want that look, I can "de-fish" the fisheye photo for extremely wide-angle shots.

You really can't use any filters with a fisheye lens, and certainly not a cross-screen filter, since the front of the lens is curved so much and the field of view is so wide that it'd be impossible to not have the filter itself visible. The only fisheye filters I am aware of are ones that go behind the lens, for filtering colors. My full-frame Zenitar fisheye has these.

The starbursts are caused by stopping down the lens, which is a fancy way of saying that you make the aperture (the hole that the light passes through in the lens) small. This shot was F13, which is a pretty small aperture. The bursts are caused by (as I understand it) internal reflections from the corners where the individual aperture blades meet. The more blades, the more bursts you get. You actually get twice the number of bursts as you have blades. The Pentax fisheye zoom has six aperture blades, so you get twelve starbursts - it just happens that they overlap each other, so you only see six. The other shot, which I linked to above, was shot at F10 and you can see a little more separation between the bursts.

Now, if you want to get really spectacular, you have a lens with an odd number of aperture blades, so they don't overlap. Many high-end lenses have nine blades, which gives you an 18-point starburst around bright lights. My dream lens is the Pentax fisheye zoom with nine blades, watersealing, and maybe a little better control over purple fringing (a common problem for very wide lenses.)

Replicating the effect in a point-and-shoot may be tricky but not impossible with a point-n-shoot. You need to make sure that you have a mode where you can control the aperture, or F-stop... usually "aperture priority" but the naming may be different on a PnS. Set it to a high number (small opening) and get a shot of a light that is much brighter than the rest of the photo and see what you can come up with. These are easiest shot at night, for obvious reasons. You also may want a tripod, as the smaller aperture means that you'll need a longer shutter speed to get the exposure that you want. My photos in question were shot with a little Gorillapod SLR, which is handy when I'm not up for carrying around my full-size tripod!

Thanks again for the kind words, and feel free to message me on Flickr or reply in this thread if you have any other questions. Thanks!

 

[andrewkurcan]

Actually, I don't think any sort of filter was used. The lens was this: Pentax SMC DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED[IF] Fisheye - Review / Test Report , which is a 6-blade lens... hence 6 points on stars.

 

[Ballistics]

Actually, I don't think any sort of filter was used. The lens was this: Pentax SMC DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED[IF] Fisheye - Review / Test Report , which is a 6-blade lens... hence 6 points on stars.

The street lights look nothing like the leds on the ground. And some of the LEDs don't have it. It's gotta be software.

 

[andrewkurcan]

Actually, I don't think any sort of filter was used. The lens was this: Pentax SMC DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED[IF] Fisheye - Review / Test Report , which is a 6-blade lens... hence 6 points on stars.

The street lights look nothing like the leds on the ground. And some of the LEDs don't have it. It's gotta be software.

The streetlights do have it, it's just very very faint - I'd put that to the exposure time and differing light source. These lights "twinkle"; if they are too dim/cycling at the time of exposure they could get missed. If you zoom in, you can see small starbursts. Also, with a fish-eye your focal plane is very distorted, could be that due to the angle of attack, the midline doesn't hit the right axis to produce the bursts. When using a bellows system you can achieve this regardless of the focal length by shifting the plane around.

Then again, I could be giving way too much benefit of doubt - Now I need to know, haha - I'm going to try and ask the photographer!

 

[Ballistics]

Actually, I don't think any sort of filter was used. The lens was this: Pentax SMC DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED[IF] Fisheye - Review / Test Report , which is a 6-blade lens... hence 6 points on stars.

The street lights look nothing like the leds on the ground. And some of the LEDs don't have it. It's gotta be software.

The streetlights do have it, it's just very very faint - I'd put that to the exposure time and differing light source. These lights "twinkle"; if they are too dim/cycling at the time of exposure they could get missed. If you zoom in, you can see small starbursts. Also, with a fish-eye your focal plane is very distorted, could be that due to the angle of attack, the midline doesn't hit the right axis to produce the bursts. When using a bellows system you can achieve this regardless of the focal length by shifting the plane around.

Then again, I could be giving way too much benefit of doubt - Now I need to know, haha - I'm going to try and ask the photographer!

That's my point. They have it, but they are nothing like the ones on the ground. As for the cylcing of the light, it's a 15 second exposure. The refresh rate of the light is a non-factor.

 

[Ballistics]

Building the Transformers... | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Here's another from the same photographer:

The street light on the left doesn't have a star but the 2 on the crane do? How does that work?
Also, shot @ f 5.0

 

[andrewkurcan]

Building the Transformers... | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Here's another from the same photographer:

The street light on the left doesn't have a star but the 2 on the crane do? How does that work?
Also, shot @ f 5.0

Yea... I believe I am defeated - the camera does in fact have digital filters - one of which i starburst. Wistful thinking on my part