[subrataofkris]

Hi peach1828,

Taking a photograph, facing the sun is difficult, so you should be be disheartened. The bird in front of the sun could have been a very beautiful shot.
Here are a few tips:

• A polarizer does not have any effect when you are facing the sun, there is no reflection here anyway.
• A lens hood protects your lens from sun rays coming at an angle, but if you face the sun directly, the flare cannot be avoided. Try taking the shot from an angle, better if you can stand in a shade.
• The sun seems to be pretty bright when you took the photograph, you should wait till the light dims, that will make life easy for you.
• The photo is dark because, your camera sensor has taken the exposure of the sun, which is too bright. This has rendered the other subjects dark like a silhouette.
• You must think what you want as your subject, if you want to create a silhouette, too much darkness will be bad for the picture, so compose accordingly. The lower part of the shot needs to be cropped.

Read the blogs on Sunset Photos here, they will help you.

Cheers,