How do I shoot in to the sun?

There are a few ways of shooting in to the sun. Depending on whether or not you are shooting a portrait the existing light will be sufficient even if you have to work it a little bit in your favor.  Here are some guidelines that I like to follow.

1) Don’t just focus on the sun.
The sun should add to the interest of the shot, not be all that the shot is about. So keep the rest of your surroundings in the shot placed in an interesting way. Move the sun in your frame to one side or the other. Catch some element in your shot that is picking up the light from the sun.

2) Wait until the sun is low in the sky.
Since I am trying to make the entire shot interesting, I tend to wait until the sun is low in the sky. I do this partly because of the color, but also because there is a little less light intensity which helps to bring out other elements of the shot, like the foreground.

3) Keep your aperture as high as possible.
Keeping your aperture nice and high will give you the star-shine that you see in my shots. It will also allow for greater depth of field, which means more of your shot will be in focus.  You shouldn’t need a tripod unless the sun in the sky is filter by smoke or clouds or something. If you find yourself needing more light bump up your ISO. Anything under 400 should be fine. If you have to go higher, then you will be pretty much forced to lower your aperture, but by then the sun is out of sight anyway, right?

4) Take more than one shot.
Be sure to take several shots. I say this because the sun setting doesn’t last long at all, and you will want several shots from different locations to work with and study. If you really want to be brave, take three different exposures covering all the lighting anomalies so you can fix them in post.

I hope that is enough to wet your whistle. Now go out and shoot!  I will see you out there somewhere.