Welcome to Michael’s Blog!

I am often asked how I am able to shoot into the sun and get these nice flares, so I thought I would outline it here.

1. First you want to line your couple up so the sun is peeking either between them or over their shoulders.
2. You are going to have plenty of light, so set your camera for an ISO of 100.
3. Next you are going to use your hand to block the sun out, and then take a picture on Aperture Priority. This will tell you what the exposure is for the couple, in this case f3.2 1/640.

4. Now set your camera to manual and dial in your exposure for the couple, in this case, f 3.2 and 1/640- manual will stay locked, so the couple will stay exposed properly, even when we let the sun into the frame. Ignore your exposure bracket because it will be going off the scale to the right once the sun comes in.

5. This is the tricky part. Your camera is going to have a very hard time achieving focus when looking into the sun, you can either focus manually, or look down at their feet, achieve focus lock, and then turn off your auto focus (the easiest way is by turning your lens switch off) and recompose.

6. With your exposure set properly, and your focus now turned off...snap away! Check your images and make small adjustments to your exposure if necessary.

One more thing- DO NOT look at the sun. I usually pull my head back off the camera just a little so I can see the couple, but I am not being blinded.

Make sure to have the couple change their pose so you get at least 3-4 good looks. :)