Photographers who carry their cameras with them at all times know very well that a good photo opportunity happens when the light sucks. At least most of the times anyway. It's just one of those things like Murphy's laws and all you can do is roll with it or leave the camera in the bag.
The tricky thing about these opportunities is that unless you are in complete control of exposure, you stand a good chance of failing to capture a beautiful or interesting scene. Sometimes a subject or a scene like this is between you and the sun, and that's the starting point for difficult exposure.
Shooting directly into the sun has two possible outcomes, depending on the exposure settings you use. You can go for a contre-jour approach and turn your subjects into silhouettes. Such a photo can be beautiful and it will definitely make sunsets look good, but it's not a technique you can use if you want to capture faces and expressions. It's also known as exposing for the highlights. The other strategy is to go for backlighting. That means going for a correct exposure of the subject. The downside to that is that you're very likely to end up with a blown background.
So what's the solution? To put it directly, the best way to get a usable shot is to go for an exposure that will give you a little bit of both in the frame, the sun and the subject.
It will most likely look like a bad photo on you camera's LCD, but that's because you're going to have to edit it to bring out the best in the final image. French photographer Serge Ramelli will show you just how to do that in this video.
Learn more about exposure from these recommended books:
- Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
- Bryan Peterson's Exposure Solutions: The Most Common Photography Problems and How to Solve Them
- Understanding Exposure: Get Amazing Results on your DSLR