Photographing halos
22 degree halo in Turku archipelago. Sony A7 III, Samyang 14mm f/2.8
Halos are quite common in the sky, but still they are not that often spotted or photographed. That’s probably because when there’s halo in the sky, there’s also bright sun in the sky and it’s natural not to look at that way. And that’s a good thing. Never look straight in to the sun!
When spotting halos, it’s good practice to cover the sun with your hand and look around the sun. Still I recommend using dark sunglasses, because the sky is so bright.
When can I see halos?
Halos form in thin clouds high up in the atmosphere. Halos are quite impossible to forecast, because they depend on things like ice crystal shape and size in the clouds. Best practice is to check weather forecast for high clouds and just go out and see. Spring is usually good time for halo spotting, because there is still lot of moisture in the air, which can form those ice crystals. With practice you start to recognize potential halo forming clouds, like cirrus and cirrostratus clouds.
Halos can be seen in the night also. When the same conditions are met and there is a full moon, it’s possible to see a moon halo. See photo below.
Moon halo, Sony A7 III, Samyang 20mm f/1.8
Camera gear for halo photography
When there’s halos, there’s lots of light. So no fancy camera necessary needed. Even a modern smartphone with wide enough optics will do. Although once again you get better results with a good camera and a good lens. Halos are big, so you want wide lens. I would say that 14mm on a full-frame camera is a minimum, if you want to fit something in the foreground of your photo. Even wider is better.
Check out my camera gear page to see what lenses I use for halo photography.
Photographing halos
There are some things to consider when photographing halos. It’s not recommended to point your camera straight in to the sun. I mean, I do it all the time, as you can see from my photos and I have had zero issues, but note that it’s not recommended. I guess that there is a possibility that it damages your cameras sensor. You can use dark neutral density filter in front of your lens, if you are worried.
I always underexpose my halo photos so that I don’t blow out all the highlights around the sun. It’s easier to lift shadows in post processing than to recover blown highlights. I usually use aperture at around f/16. If the clouds are thin enough, it creates a nice sunstar. Shutter speeds are in the 1/1000 - 1/4000 range. ISO is always at 100.
Halo spotting is fun and it’s one more good reason to pack your pack and go out and get some fresh air.
Links
cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/halo-phenomena.html
Lots of info on different types of halos
Great site for cloud identification and classification
