Which of the smaller branches and twigs catch the highlights? Only those that are oriented 90 degrees to the direction of the light. The illuminated twigs align into concentric rings around the centerpoint of the light source; hence I’ve named the phenomenon “annular highlights.”The three arrows in the photo are placed perpendicular to the illuminated twigs. If you follow the arrows, they lead to the location of the sun.
Annular highlights can also be observed in the scratches of a well-used stainless steel surface, like this cookie sheet and pot lid. Look for it in the window of a passenger train on a late afternoon, in a cobweb on a dewy morning, in a cornfield lit by a setting sun, or on telephone wires on a rainy night.
7 comments:
I LOVE this affect. My favorite place to see it is looking at a streetlight through a winter-bare tree. I tried to explain this phenomenon to a non-artist friend once and they simply couldn't see it.
Cully, I tried to take some photos of that phenomenon a while back, with limited success.
Cobwebs on the grass at dawn. A great name for it... Did you coin it?
This reminded me of a different phenomenon that happens when my windshield wipers create smudged lines (equally distant) across my car window. At night the street lights will reflect off each of the smudged lines forming a long line of light similar to that found by looking at many puddles or waves on the water reflecting the same light source back to the eye. An effect that some lenses create, I assume, with concentric rings giving a star shape to a light source. Love all your posts James. I realize this is a little bit different than the phenomenon you were describing.
It's the little observations like this that make this blog so great. Thank you, James.
Holy Cow! That is the most amazing, "I would never have noticed that in a million years" tip I've seen! BTW, I'm a frequent visiter, I just don't write much. Love the books too.
Thanks for doing this!
It kept me thinking, but did you know that the star forming stripes are caused by the same principal, ... those are really the polish-marks on the glass that you see, ....when looking through some optical stuff, .... obvious
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