Break the Rules: Photographing Into the Sun

Rules are often there for a reason and the rule of thirds, proper exposure and shooting with the light are all essential guidelines. But what happens when you deliberately break those rules? One powerful technique that challenges a long standing convent is photographing into the sun, and when done right, it can yield some truly stunning and dramatic results.

Photographing into the sun can be tricky as the overwhelming brightness often leads to overexposed images and distracting lens flares. However, when you embrace this challenge you can capture silhouettes, backlighting and further emphasise that golden-hour magic - revealing a completely different dimension of your subject and their environment.

With the immense amount of data modern cameras can capture it isn’t difficult to reign back in some detail from over or under exposed images – providing you don’t go too far! What might look like a completely unusable mess on the back of your screen could turn out to be truly spectacular with a few basic adjustments later on in editing. This way we can capture the dramatic sight of an animal breaking the glare of a sun with its body whilst also retaining detail – or we can forgo the detail and instead create an iconic silhouette.

An elephant and calf crossing the mid-morning sun in the sky, or a couple of rhinos stood by basking in the final moments of an orange backdrop – taking a risk and shooting toward the sun or a bright sky can quickly deliver more cinematic looking shots that will add more diversity to your portfolio.

The key to success when photographing into the sun is control. Use manual settings to adjust exposure and don’t shy away from experimenting with silhouettes or even flare effects. It may take a little trial and error but when you embrace the challenge - you might just find that breaking the rules opens up a new and exciting world of creative possibilities.