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Starbursts can be a wonderful addition to landscapes and night scenes. Set a narrow aperture like f/22, then point your lens towards any small, bright highlight (such as the sun or a street lamp), and it can become a beautiful star shape.
But using this technique poses a dilemma. The narrow aperture results in diffraction, where 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 also the enemy, because it 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, we can…