sun in shots

[arashy_89]

hey everyone, i'm kinda new in this site
i was wondering how can we take a shot with sun in it without any damage to picture contrast!?

[girlsfather]

The solution is to shoot a number of different exposed shots in RAW format (called bracketing), using a tripod. Then develop different exposures and blend in one file manually or use software like Photomatix to create an HDR (high dynamic range) image.

[mistermonday]

Bracketing, as pointed out above, is one possibility. The other is a Neutral Density filter on the camera lense.
Regards, Murray

[Kraellin]

i've not tried shooting the actual sun in any of my digital stuff. but, i do trick the auto-exposure stuff quite often by pointing the camera away from a lighter or darker spot and then pressing the shutter button half way down to set the auto-focus/exposure and then point the camera back to where i really want to shoot. you do have to be a bit careful doing this or your focus wont be focused at all, but it is a way of tricking the auto-exposure. and, if you're using a broad depth of field setting you can often get away with it just fine.

[CJ Swartz]

You can create "sunstars" (the sun light separated into numerous rays like a star * ) by shooting into the sun, taking care to have most of the sun blocked by a tree or another object so that only a sliver of light is showing around the object. You also need to shoot at a small F-stop (aperture) such as f-11 or f-16.

Here is a youtube video from the Daily Critique section of The Mindful Eye photography website - it talks about shooting with the sun in the frame, as well as shooting sunstars.

Sunstars - more info and example