How are the starburst light effects in boxing achieved?

[Inazuma]

Does anyone know if they use a particular type of lens or filter for this?

[BTM_Pix]

16 minutes ago, Inazuma said:

 

Does anyone know if they use a particular type of lens or filter for this?

Its produced naturally (intentionally or otherwise) by refraction when using narrower apertures.

 

You can buy filters such as this cheap and cheerful set which will create the effect without having to stop down.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fotover-Filter-Pieces-Olympus-Cameras/dp/B07LF8KY4F

[Geoff CB]

This filter:

https://www.adorama.com/tf77s4.html?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=CjwKCAjwte71BRBCEiwAU_V9h3OGvyjOFdz1IBFcjdhHidJnf9P_Om1vlLXwLgHyIwwT2ffArKGhpBoC7IEQAvD_BwE&utm_source=nmpi-google-dsa

[FranciscoB]

I guess it's the effect that BTM_pix is talking about, only on a broadcast system with a 4 blade aperture lens.

[newfoundmass]

Yeah, stopping down is done both because the ring area is so bright compared to the rest of the venue and because for shots like that especially you want as much in focus as possible, since it shows how large the crowd is. That's the end result. Happens to me when doing wrestling events though it doesn't look nearly as cool because most events don't have that much lighting nor as many spectators, at least not the ones I film and produce!

[leslie]

quite by accident i found this phillip reeve website on sunstars a few days ago, it may answer a few of your questions towards the end it covers filters as well

https://phillipreeve.net/blog/best-lenses-for-sunstars/

[noone]

I SHOULD have paid a lot more attention to "sunstars" since I love shooting at night (irony?) but it is something I have only really started thinking about lately.    Just checked my lenses and of the ones i use regularly, they mostly have 8 blades with a couple of 9 blades.     I do have a Canon EF-s kit lens that has 6 but not something i use much.

Some do get quite nice stars and others not so much.     I will have to try them over the next couple of days.

I used to have a Zeiss Jenna Biotar 58mm f2 with 18 blades (they also made some with over 20).

I also have a Hoya varicross filter around here somewhere I should find and try (came with a job lot of filters i got for sorting out a camera stores old stock of filters) and I have hardly used it in all the years i have had it. 

[newfoundmass]

You can achieve this with most lenses when stopping them down, even ones with more blades. 

[noone]

Found my Varicross filter (this thing retailed at $52 Australian when that was worth something around the year 2000), then I realised I had sold my 52mm filter thread lenses so a quick trip to a pawn shop and I found a Tamron adaptall 70-150 3.5 for peanuts (i need another old lens like i need a new hole in my head and had also just purchased another old lens on Ebay a few hours before ....I must be nuts having just got rid of a heap lately ).

 

Anyway, the little Tamron seems a great lens if not something I will use, much..very clean and clear glass and barely marked exterior for the price of a decent takeaway lunch but the filter makes it quite veiled (the filter has only been used once or twice in the more than 15 years I have had it so is effectively as new).

Very disappointing but that was in the daytime with a torch as the light source so i will try later tonight with the filter on the lens (the lens has 6 blades itself but the filter works wide open too).    As the name implies is variable in the direction of the rays.

 

[FranciscoB]

11 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

You can achieve this with most lenses when stopping them down, even ones with more blades. 

Yes. The number of blades will determine the shape of the sunstars.

[Inazuma]

16 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

You can achieve this with most lenses when stopping them down, even ones with more blades. 

 

On 5/13/2020 at 10:11 PM, newfoundmass said:

Yeah, stopping down is done both because the ring area is so bright compared to the rest of the venue and because for shots like that especially you want as much in focus as possible, since it shows how large the crowd is. That's the end result. Happens to me when doing wrestling events though it doesn't look nearly as cool because most events don't have that much lighting nor as many spectators, at least not the ones I film and produce!

The camera will have a small sensor and the focal lenth will be wide so I don't think you'd need to stop down to get achieve the desired depth of field. And for a small sensor you'd need to let in as much as light as you can otherwise the image would be grainy. 

Also you can only get 4 pointed stars with a lens that has 4 aperture blades.. and I've never heard of a lens with 4 blades.

[FranciscoB]

If you do a long exposure at night, with the lens stopped down, you'll get the star effect on most lights in the shot. That's just a consequence of stopping down the lens. If you open up the aperture, that effect will go away. If you need the light and open up the lens, then you'll need one of the filters mentioned above. That's it. 

[noone]

Ignoring how poor the photos are (this old 70-150mm lens is very ordinary, I can take it back and get my money back but better to not let it back out in the wild again).    The filter looks a lot better on a 50mm lens but I do not have any anymore (will get a cheap one soon i guess).

Near wide open with filter, without and stopped down without at 70mm.     By rotating the front ring of the filter it effectively changes from four rays to two (it is freezing out so I just went out my front door for  minute or so).