Shooting Into the Sun

Common Misconceptions

Shooting into the sun can add a lot of drama to your photos, but there are some common misconceptions:

1. Shooting into the sun can hurt your eyes. Yes, if you look through the viewfinder, however if you use the camera's live view mode and look through the screen in the back, then you'll be fine.
2. Sh0oting into the sun can hurt the sensor in the camera. It may over a long period of time or over a long exposure, but shouldn't hurt your sensor through normal shooting.
   
3. Shooting into the sun creates lens flare. Yes, you may get lens flare but you can control this and it can be used to advantage.
4. Shooting into the sun creates great contrast in the image (high dynamic range) which results in parts of the image being over exposed or under exposed or both. Yes, but you can plan for this by using flash, or underexposing and in post processing recover the shadows.

Tips for Getting Better Shots

1. Use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to compose your shot.
2. If you like to capture sun stars, use a small aperture such as F16 combined with a good quality, wide angle prime or zoom lens that's been coated to reduce flare and reflections.
3. Partially hide the sun behind some trees or an object to reduce its intensity allowing for more exposure flexibility.
4. If shooting in the morning or evening take shots just before sunrise or after sunset. You'll still get a wonderful sky without having to deal with the sun's intensity.
5. If taking portraits with the sun behind the subject, use a flash. Underexpose the camera by 1 to 1.5 stops but overexpose your flash by 1 to 1.5 stops. This helps to ensure that the sunset is exposed properly and that your subject is  also exposed correctly.
6. Don't overexpose. It's better to underexpose and then recover the detail in the dark areas of the image through post processing.

Sample Gallery

Thought for the Day

“There are always two people in every picture:  the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams