Shooting into the sun – hamilton commercial photographer

This is a continuation of a blog post I did a few weeks ago about the importance of light in photography. It will focus on shooting into the sun. There is a cardinal rule in photography to never point your camera into the sun. The idea behind this is then your subject is well lit. There is also an added danger of burning your retinas with if you stare at the sun with a telephoto lens, so this is not what I’m endorsing! But if you only shoot with the sun behind you, you will miss out on some amazing shots. It is important when doing this to shoot at the golden hour. During the afternoon will not yield very exciting results. But don’t let that deter you! Shooting into the sun can yield some beautiful results!

This was a job I did for CSL. They built this magnificent man made waterfall for the City of Brantford. It was so beautiful. I took this image at sunrise shooting right at the sun. The makes for a very glowing photo since everything in the image is backlit in the golden hour sunlight. With the right camera settings you can ensure that the foreground isn’t underexposed.

Family portraits is also a great time to put the sun behind the subject. It really gives the photo some real drama! The sky has lots of interesting detail and the colours are rich and vibrant. Again when using this method you need to have the right exposure or your subjects faces with be too shadowed. Of course editing in Photoshop or Lightroom can help immensely in giving the right exposure to the subject.

This is another instance where the sun is directly behind the subject. Below is a photo taken a minute before but without putting the sun into the frame. Can you believe the difference? While there is nothing wrong with the bottom image per se, it certainly lacks interest. The sun in the top image makes the image special without realizing why. If you came across the bottom image you would be bored with it. Personally I would just keep scrolling. While it is in focus, exposed properly and taken at golden hour it’s not enough. You want to convey emotion through your images, and backlighting your subject with the sun is a great way to accomplish that!