Source:www.jimippolito.com

Glare is always a problem to be dealt with in all forms of photography, both still and video, film and digital.

Glare and its closely related cousin "flare" or "lens flare," simply put, is the result of non-image forming, or "stray" light. It is usually the result of light striking the lens directly and then bouncing around or "reflecting" off the inner elements of your camera's lens.

Remember that you're always supposed to have the light behind you, and therefore falling "on" your subject.

This is not always possible and usually the opportunity for a good photograph is missed. There are times however when you may actually want to include or induce a bit of flare for dramatic effect.

This short article shows you how to avoid glare by altering your position in relation to the subject.

This is not always possible of course but sometimes you can limit glare and even use it to good effect.

I took the above picture in early November of last year in Zion National Park, with my Kodak 880P, and as you can see I deliberately shot into the sun.

The reason I took this picture, despite the sun being in exactly the wrong position, was because I liked what I saw in the shadow detail, and the fall colored leaves that were illuminated from behind appear a bit delicate and transparent.

In order not to have a huge color killing hot spot in the photo I moved the camera around until just a hint of the sun poked through an opening in the leaves.

I'm happy with the result, which took about a dozen shots to finally achieve the effect I wanted. Again, that's the beauty of digital, all the muffed shots cost me nothing, no wasted film or processing costs.

Flare and glare can also be controlled, to some degree, by the use of a "polarizing" filter; but that's a subject for another time.

Now get out there with your digital camera and do some experimenting.