Shooting into the sun for newbies. This can and does produce some beautiful photographic results but it can also created photographic disasters. So here are a few simple tips to help you get started and get the best from your into the sun shots. Simple tips for shooting and seeing the ‘magic of light’.

Shooting into the sun by diffusing the light.

The first thing to remember is the sun is very bright in the middle of the day and should be avoided if at all possible. Shooting at dawn is by far the best time to shoot the light. The picture above is taken just after sunup and I have diffused the already soft light by shooting through the grass and using a 10x20mm lens at f7.1 ISO 100 at 1/60sec. And as you can see the sun flare is still white, white means bright. But the foreground is relatively dark.

If I compensated for the bright light, by that I mean exposed for the light, the foreground would be very dark indeed. So I expose for the middle ground and I get dramatic light differences. It also helps to have interesting details in the shot, like the little spider webs.

Shooting the morning light. Keep the camera in shadow.

Another tip for shooting into the light is to try and keep the camera in shadow and avoid pointing it directly at the sun. In the shot above I am in the shadow of the palm tree on the left and the idea of the shot was to get the awesome dawns red light beams hitting the grass and bringing out the fall colors and textures, again very strong lights and darks make a powerful image.

An accidental lens flare works out well in this composition

Keeping the camera in the dark so to speak will help stop very bad lens flares from ruining your shots. But sometimes a lens flare can be a wonderful thing but it is hard to control and if it turns out good it is an accident. As in the sunset shot above taken on the beach. The lens flare here is accidental but it compliments the shape of the driftwood and helps fill in the empty space on the left.

In the shot of the Naples Pier below I have diffused the sun by waiting for it to be partly obscured by the cloud you can do the same with a building, a tree or even a person. There is also a way for you to get a better exposure and that is to take separate shots of the light and dark areas by using the Bracketing mode of your DSLR camera this will take 3/5 or even 7 frames then use software like Adobe to combine them into one HDR photo.

Diffuse the suns light by partly obscuring it with a cloud

Exposure is the top and bottom of all good photographs and getting the exposure right takes practice. In your DSLR camera you have an exposure control that can be seen in the view finder it has a ’0′ in the center and goes + or – on either side. getting the indicator in the center, the ’0′ indicates a correct exposure but the practice come in when a correct exposure is not what you want.

Being creative with exposure leads to a better understanding of the light and creates more dramatic photos. As a general rule of thumb shooting at -1 exposure compensation will increase the strength of colors in your photos and is a good rule to follow. Practice with exposure compensation so you can see what it does to the photos. I like to shoot at -2 because I like dramatic light differences.

Using exposure to create silhouettes of trees

When you expose for the brightest part of the picture the darker areas will go very dark to black and create silhouettes as in the shot above had I exposed for the darker trees the sky would be a lot brighter and would of had a washed out look to it. Shooting the light in sunrise and sunset shots is always better if you have some clouds in the sky, clouds can add a lot of drama to a photograph.

Use close up focus and a shallow depth of field and a wide angle lens

In the photo above I have used a wide angle lens a 10x20mm to get a close up of the flower and grass but to also get the rising sun in the same picture. By getting down onto the ground and with the camera pointed slightly downwards I was able to get the suns flare with out it burning out the shot.

By using a shallow depth of field at f4.5 ISO 200 at 1/125 focus was kept to the flower and everything else gets blurred out. A similar action for the shot below at f4 ISO 800 at 1/60 but this time shooting straight into the sun that was diffused in the distance by some grass this kept the distance and the colors very soft.

Shoot into the sun with a shallow depth of field

Sometime it is difficult to focus your camera when shooting into the sun so by putting your hand over the top of the lens to cut out the glare can help you get the focus, if you are still not sure then use a higher f stop to give you some leeway in depth of field. Or try to gauge the distance to your subject and then move your camera to focus on something at about the same distance but away from the sun, then you can lock the focus and come back to your shot.

Close up of a flower at dawn with diffused sunlight

 You can even diffuse the sunlight through the flower you are shooting as in the shot above, by getting further away from the flower and zooming in close with my 70×300 set at 70mm f4 at ISO 100 at 1/125sec the rising sun is obscured by the flower it self and the light glows through the petals.

So there you have some simple tips for shooting the light. If you want lore detailed info on this the web is full of it, so experiment as practice makes perfect.

More photos can be seen on my website. “Dawn Photos” and “Spider Web Grass Photos”