Shooting Into the Sun: How to Capture Stunning Landscape Photos

Well hello guys and welcome back to this week's video and welcome back to Torridon in the Highlands of Scotland and you're joining me here as we've just taken our first shot we've driven all the way up today it's now about four o'clock the sun's beginning to set we're getting to that sort of time of day where it's dropping behind the hills and I want to run you through this quick shot that I've found here before it kind of disappears so I'm going to show you the back of the camera now now you'll see from the back of here a lot of it is in shade and that's because I'm shooting right into the sun and the reason for that is the sun's just come around the edge of one of the mountains it's going to be quite difficult to walk you through because I'm being blinded as we're talking about this but if I increase the exposure and raise it up now you will notice the sun's going to blow everything out but you'll start to see what I've got lined up you'll see here I've got these mountains and there's obviously there's three layers there's the trees the Caledonian pine trees in the bottom of the frame Scott's Pines and then behind that we've got another mountain range and then beyond that we've got the highest mountain range with the cloud cover and the sun has just come around the edge of one of the hills it's obviously come further out since I started to record this and if I lower my exposure again you'll see what I'm trying to do you'll see that I'm just trying to get those rays to come around the side of that mountain over there and just start to backlight the tops of those pine trees and that's what I'm aiming for it's kind of a tricky shot which because obviously we're shooting straight into the sun so I'm having to underexpose quite a lot in fact I'm about three stops under at the minute and what I'm having to watch for is specular highlights not only in the sky and the clouds but also in the water down below obviously as that sun's come up it's now illuminating the water and causing lots of bright spots so I really need to watch that I think the earlier shots that I managed to capture are probably better because it was just coming around the side of that hill before it illuminated that spot in the water so hopefully I managed to capture that I've got a four by three aspect ratio at the minute I'm at ISO 100 f16 at a 2 50th of a second and that's me kind of almost three stops under at that obviously those settings are going to have altered from when I first took the shot but you get the idea of what I'm looking at and what I'm trying to create so hopefully this is going to be a good first shot to start with we're up here for four days in total it's taken a day to get up here so obviously this is the first shot we've got two full days of photography and then maybe another morning to get through but yeah hopefully this is the start of something good because the conditions are looking beautiful yes we've got a lot of blue sky tonight but there's also lots of lovely cloud moving in so fingers crossed for a great few days and hopefully if this shot's turned out here's that shot now shooting into the sun can create stunning landscape photos but it requires the right approach here's how to get the best results use a small aperture f11 to f16 for sunbursts and keep iso low to reduce noise adjust exposure compensation to balance highlights and shadows control lens flare with a lens hood or filter case or use it creatively add foreground elements for depth and experiment with silhouettes for drama use a polarizing filter to reduce glare or an nd filter to manage bright light beyond sun stars embrace the warm golden glow at sunrise and sunset for atmosphere finally shoot safely never look directly at the sun through your viewfinder the best shots come from experimenting and adjusting so get out there and give it a try so you'll have noticed that i didn't take you to the back of the camera for these last shots and that's because the light was fading so fast and when the light's changing so quickly like that it's really difficult to start recording it because you're kind of afraid you're going to miss the shot so i just took a little bit of b-roll which hopefully you'll see of me photographing down there and basically what i was trying to do obviously we had those rays and i moved position from the first shot that i managed to take i wanted to get closer to the reeds and into the water itself because i was trying to kind of get more of these pine trees in the foreground and do a long exposure i tried a 10 stop filter i also tried a six stop filter to smooth out the water but then i was taking shots again similar to what i've done before is taking two different types of shots a faster shutter speed for all the action behind so the landscape behind and a slower shutter speed for the water element because obviously we've got wind blowing across the top of this lock and it's causing ripples across it and i really wanted to make the most of the grasses and smooth that water out and also to try and get a little bit of the reflection of that sunset as it was coming down there so hopefully that's turned out and it's just one of those things where you're kind of rushing around to grab these shots i took one or two shots while i was working down there and i'm going to pop those up next for you well good morning and welcome back to torridon and an area that we've been to quite a few times but this morning is just absolutely beautiful it's freezing cold so we're just walking into this area that we've been to before grabbed a quick shot back there i didn't walk you through it because the light is changing pretty quick this morning there's not going to be a fantastic amount of colour to be honest with you there's just hues of pink above the mountain back there um but yeah it's not going to be anything that dramatic colour wise but the conditions are really really nice it's cold the water's quite calm as it is and obviously we've got these beautiful pine forests everywhere so hopefully we'll be able to find something down at this next lock which is where we're walking to now something that'll be able to walk you through but yeah it was just nice to grab that shot first it was including the moon it's just there now actually just above the horizon and uh yeah i got that shot in with the mountain in the distance there just absolutely beautiful anyway here's that shot now