One of the first things you learn in any basic book or course on photography is to keep the Sun at your back when taking an outdoor photo. Yet, there at times when having the Sun in your photo creates interesting light patterns, flare and, when stopping down the lens, star effect. Remember NOT to look directly at the Sun as that will cause damage to your eyes. Very carefully put the sun in a corner, lower or upper half of the frame. Use a small aperture in the f/16, f/22 or f/32 range to cut down the amount of light entering the camera when the shutter is pressed.
This is what I did when heading towards the summit of Expedition EVEREST in Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 ultra wide angle lens has a 9-bladed diaphragm and creates lovely stars of bright light sources at f/22 and you can't get much brighter than the Sun.
Sun near the summit of Everest.
Nikon D70/Tokina 11-16, 1/400s, f/22, ISO 200, +0.3 EV, 11mm Focal length
I found this link to 25 Excellent Sun Flare Photography Examples showing some outstanding photos featuring the Sun. Here's more tips for achieving artistic lens flare. Have fun and be careful!
Posted by Scott Thomas on August 7, 2009 5:00 AM | 
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Comments (2)
Great tip. On your photo byline, it says "Tripod" -- I have a hard time believing you really set up a tripod on the EE ride.
Scott replies: Copy and paste is a wonderful thing but, if you forget to proof read the results, it can lead to some interesting results. :-) Nope, no tripod on the ride as you said, Boris. Thank you for pointing it out and I have removed it from the Exif data.
Posted by Boris Beckert | August 7, 2009 9:36 AM
Posted on August 7, 2009 09:36
Thanks for the artistic reminder Scott!! I've found that playing with light sources is about my favorite part of photography. It really opens up your options and makes some pretty boring shots come to life. One question I have that's never been confirmed one way or another is whether or not imaging the sun has any adverse affects on your camera's sensor. Thanks again for all the help you provide with these entries.
Scott replies: It won't damage your sensor in the fraction of seconds of exposure which are used to take these types of photos. Of course, extended exposure of the sensor using long shutter speeds would as it would our eyes.
Posted by Josh | August 7, 2009 10:37 AM
Posted on August 7, 2009 10:37