I was seven and back at the sea, a place I had adored from 9 months old when first introduced to it. I called it “the lake with all the soap on.” Family photos were an annual event during these holidays. My dad would round up everyone, turn us so that we were facing directly into the sun and then start snapping away with his own back toward it. I’d whine in long syllables about my sore eyes and my inability to look directly into the sun. “Dad, why don’t you just take photos where the sun is in the picture?”

“Because there would be shadows on your faces,” he replied.

Now as a photographer I have started taking my own advice seriously. Sometimes shadows or extreme light on a face are exactly what we need to make an image.

Lens flare occurs when light enters the lens but is not used to form the picture. In a sense it is “unnecessary” or “extra” light that floods into the camera. Lens flare can make images look kitsch. Or, it can add an artistic element that accentuates a subject.

Below are seven artistic finishes that you can achieve, using lens flare effectively:

1. Highlight an object that is usually very difficult to see.

 2. Create a soft effect or mood within an image.

3. Focus on a particular object’s characteristics.

4. Emphasise an element within a portrait. In this case the boy’s eyes are the focus.

5. Create drama by keeping a subject in shadow and making the actual flare the central point of the image.

6. Build height and depth into images by using flare to fill empty space.

7. Home in on activity by using flare to blank out the background.

For this month’s challenge:

• Get out at sunset or sunrise.
• Capture a lens flare image by shooting directly into the sun.
• Apply one, or more, of the artistic effects described above.
• Submit your images to the High Calling Focus pool by Wednesday the 23rd.
• Tag your images with “photoplay 13” so that we can trace them.
• Have fun and see you all in the gallery at The High Calling next week Friday.