shooting into the sun (question)

[joshuasky]

Lately I have come across numerous photographs of a subject placed beautifully in front of the sun or with the sun exposed just enough to create flairs. However from past experienced I have avoided these type of compositions because the subject is often given an over-exposed look.

So why is it that the subject is not completely darkened?

[zona5101]

if you were using a metering mode that looks at several areas of the frame, or a center weighted mode, the camera would calculate an exposure for the whole sceen and not just the sun/flare.

[WVCoalMiner]

Also Fill Flash and/or reflectors to remove the shadows on the face

[kirbinster]

Positive exposure compensation sometimes is useful as well.

[greenroompt]

HDR, or High dynamic range is another way of achieving multiple exposes in one image.

this shot was taken with 7 different exposures to get the dark shadows of the trees exposed, all the way to the brightly lit sky. using photomatix, i merged them,(or generated them) by layering them all on top of one another and the software pulls each object from the layer in which it was exposed correctly.

Flickr Photo Download: 10 minutes from house

[BigFuzzy]

To me, as coalminer said, it's clearly fill flash or a reflector.

It's quite a popular thing to do nowadays and if done well works great.
One guy who's a master of it (in my opinion) is Lou O'Bedlam or even Phamster. Check out their work if you're interested. Lou does almost exclusive Natty Light (with reflectors at times) whereas Phamster uses a lot of flash.

[Niresangwa]

Where I can get flare, I use it. Recently I've had more than my fair share with it. I almost always shoot with an assistant who has a strobe on a monopod as a boom with a 22" beauty dish as a modifier to light the subject, then just place the sun where I want it...

...you can have a lot of fun with it, especially placing the sun in the frame to act as a great rim light, or place it between a couple, or simply have the sun out of frame, but use the lens flare it creates as a feature of the shot.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Where I can get flare, I use it. Recently I've had more than my fair share with it. I almost always shoot with an assistant who has a strobe on a monopod as a boom with a 22" beauty dish as a modifier to light the subject, then just place the sun where I want it...

...you can have a lot of fun with it, especially placing the sun in the frame to act as a great rim light, or place it between a couple, or simply have the sun out of frame, but use the lens flare it creates as a feature of the shot.

+1 exactly.

Don't get caught up in the old-school "flare=bad" mentality. But it does require you to get a handle on flash lighting (hopefully off-camera).

Despite the awkwardness for me in the pose of the posted image, I love how the sun rim-lit the subject.. and the flare rocks.