You can do it without a GND filter but you need to make a choice. If you are shooting into the sun you have two options.
- Shoot silhouttes, expose for the sky and have whatever is in front of you totally in shadow.
- Use photoshop. You could try HDR, simple exposure blending or photoshop GND filters. However you need to be carefull when shooting, use a tripod and get the right exposures, the sky arround the sun could be over 5 stops brighter than the land so to get the right shot is quite difficult. Shoot RAW to give you more room to adjust.
This shot was created using two exposures, one for the sky and one for the land and sticthed acrross the horizon. It can be quite difficult to blend if the sky's exposure is a long way from the land as it can look very unnatural.
