Shooting into the light
- This topic has 65 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated Apr 11, 2014 at 3:19 pm by
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But how are you guys shooting when you actualy keep the sun itself in the frame?
The reason I bring this up is because in the manuals for the camera and lenses, it says to not look directly at the sun through the lens OR viewfinder.
There could possibly be eye damage and the camera manufacturers legal departments are probably making that suggestion in order to avoid possible law suits. I myself try to avoid looking at the sun and concentrate on the subject. I also shoot pretty fast and am constantly moving my camera around to get new/different compositions. That probably helps keep the sun out of the same place for very long causing more focused light. But I have had problems seeing after shooting these types of photos and often get watery eyes and have to take a break. Just be smart about it and never do anything that feels like is causing damage to your eyes. If it’s bothering you, your body is telling you to stop and take a break!
Since the shutter is closed, there shouldn’t be any concern about damaging the sensor of your camera as long as you’re not doing a long exposure.http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.
http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox InstagramThanks for the input Chad, David, and Morsie.
I just recently got my first wide angle(Canon EF-S 10-22mm) and have been playing around with it in short increments.
I have been doing different things with it and one of them is practicing these into the sun shots. I opted for “winging it” and not looking through the viewfinder ;D Anyways, I have found that when shooting straight on into the sun, I get a lot of lens flare and am wondering what I can do about that? It seems like if I use the 10mm-12mm setting, I get flare, and if I use 14mm – 22mm I don’t. Also, I don’t think a lens hood would be any help, as these shots are directly into the sun?
Here are a few test shots. Nothing fancy, didn’t care about composition, just trying to work on exposure and lighting and flare:
Ist 3 images are at 10mm
The image below is at 14mm (others out to 22mm didn’t have any flare today):
Yesterday, I was getting some very harsh lens flare like the full halo in image #1. This is what I am primarily curious about and trying to avoid or see if I can correct it in post processing somehow?
The flare is beautiful !
Getting rid of it in a shot that wide is very hard, but you can try holding your hat or hand out over the lens until it’s blocked.
The lens hoods on zooms are always a compromise.. 😉
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
Hmm, Maybe I don’t need to be concerned with the flare? I like the sunburst in image #1 a lot, I just thought the outer ring of flare was distracting, and even the smaller purplish flares in the other images might be a little distracting? I guess I’ve just never experienced it to that degree.
It also appears that the halo flare only happens when the sun is very low in the sky and dead center in the frame.
“Don’t fear the flare” – its part of the package. Lens internal structure is going to have a good deal to do with this – higher number of elements will make it more likely.
Get a subject between you and the sun to put the lens in shade and hit it with some flash. Its about back lit highlights.
For this photography your lends needs to be immaculately clean as well.
Morsie
I like flares and starburst and am trying to make a conscious effort to include them more. Sort of a trial and error thing
But also find that using clouds to obscure the sun pays dividends to. I didn’t have my flash me, so the challenge became exposing the girl enough, without completely blowing the sun and sky.
I agree .. Personally, I dig the flares. This has been a great thread and made me a little more conscious and intentional about leaving the hood off for these types of shots.
I thought about this thread during my recent trips. Had some fun shooting in to the light and also using the Simcox low light/horizon late day sun technique.
Hard mid day light directly behind subject
Hard mid day light portrait shoot (sun behind subject’s head)
Low light horizon
Very low light horizon (almost gone) behind subjects (Brett and Charlie fishing)
Baked! Full Monty – Open Sun! Not my style, but it works “o.k.” for this shot.
Neal that second shot with the backlit highlight coming through the cloth is in my view what makes these kinds of shots. I really like the last one too, if you ever wanted to convey a feeling of heat and discomfort after a hard day in the sun on the flats that’s it. It isn’t a comfortable image, it isn’t meant to be. That is exactly how most of my flats fishing has been, hard, hot, and looking into the burning sun, especially late in the day before it gets softer and you can look into it safely. 😎
That’s what its all about. Great flash work too.
Morsie
This one is an old favourite of mine. Its been sold quite a few times, about to be made into an advertising poster -(with a little clean up).
The place is a billabong on the floodplains in the Northern Territory just at the end of the wet season as the floodplains drain off.
Morsie
I found this blog in my link library (possibly got it from IA, can’t remember). This blog is about the nikon cls and was very helpfull for me to understand something about flashing.
http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/2008/01/nikon-flash-two-separate-metering.html
Old thread, still a current technique.
Here are some shots from the iPhone pointed into the sun. No flash fill or control over the exposure, but I got what I was looking for.
http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.
http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram
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