Tuesday Tutorial: lesson for the sun... READY!!!

why do we hide from the sun! shoot right into it! I LOVE THE SUN!!!!! here is my little tips to sun shooting!

use your hood! a hood traps that sun and bounces it all around making circles! and you can see them in your lens as your about to shoot, its sort of blinding but hey...COOOOL! so also, the lower you are to the ground the bigger the circles, and the wider the lens it seems to get easier as well. here are my sample shots.

the first shot i put the sun behind the fountain water, glowing up the water and highlighting them. i was laying on my side to get the camera low so that the sun reays would channel through and bounce, making circles! you can see them as you angle the lens. i always do the test shots (cus its blinding) and when i have it ready then i frame them where i want and jiggle the lens around slowly looking for lens flare...then shoot! also, note that i NEVER add fake sun flare...i just work at the shot till i get it.

iso 160 sp 1/160 f5.6 these two are fun...sun RIGHT behind them. use your flash. and at first just use auto flash or if you have a speed light then set it at pttl (auto) and let it think for you...then shoot a sample, adjust flash and settings accordingly and then snap! sun rays

1. iso 320 (keep it LOW for great saturation!)

fstop 4.0

sp 1/1000 (because the flash and camera need to contradict. meaning the fast speed allows the camera to capture the light and colors around them, flash allows them to be lit too.)

1/100sp 8.0 f and iso 640 little more light and less flash on this one, for dreamy look) and sun right into the lens, peeking from the tree. same rules apply.

iso 400 sp 1/200 3.5 f

watch where the sun rays show in your lens, if they are hot that night set a ray right on them! like heavenly right? lol same settings as last. same recipie...just angled different letting different lights in!

here are just a couple more... these are to show my point a bit more. shooting into the sun is fantastic!!!!!!! you can do sooo much! truly! see:

these shot i wanted to see sky in its brilliant blue so i tricked the camera (lol.) meaning i shot it at an exposure that really is shooting the clouds... then fired a flash that caought them. so light meter the sky! then set flash then shoot! adjust appropriatly. resipie:

iso 250 sp 1/1000 and f7.1

last 3... at the same wedding i wanted three different shots, one really focused, and deeply saturated giving a feeling of where they are and the true colors around them. so the ap is set at 10 so that a great depth is set. the trees are focused even. iso 160 and sp 1/125 a very REAL photo.

the second i wanted a real magical feel. so its overexposed, showing ONLY them and blurry background and sun flare. iso 640 5.6 1/500 so lots of light in. and lastly this one! not real at all, a comic book color and really harsh sun flare. i was WAY low to the ground widest lens and really juiced up the recipie to make it work! iso 640 f 16 and sp1/1250 TONS of light and NO flash. to silluette them and make it grainish and just LOUD. these are all real circles, nothing added.
hope this gave you a few ideas...this is my favorite type of shooting. i love the sun! please leave cc to my thoughts if you have any as well! thanks for letting me be a part of this blog and thanks to everyone for the comments all the time! lindy