daldds Loc: NYC

I was taught never to shoot directly into the sun, but sometimes there is an affect that I would like to record. The first image is what the camera recorded and the second is my attempt to make it look like what I think I saw. The third image is of the settings applied in LR.
These are not photographs at which to marvel, but to see if others have tried to handle the situation, and how they do it.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I like opening the shadows digitally. But, have you maybe gone a bit too far?

The sunburst seems to have lost some of the impact. What do the shadows look like in the +45 to +65 range instead? Or, maybe the exposure at +.85 to +1.15 and the shadows in the +50 to +85?

You might consider the HSL sliders and adjust the Luminance of the blue / aqua of the sky, making darker. Use the Hue slider to adjust back to 'blue' when this color changes too green (or too red) when the blue channel is darkened.

You might too look at your distortion settings. The image seems to be leaning slightly to the left and the tops of the buildings growing outward. In the manual section of Lens Distortion, move the Distortion slightly -6 to +6 and see if one direction or the other helps on creating straight(er) lines for the buildings. Working with the Vertical and Aspect sliders in the Transform section sometimes is needed beyond the Distortion slider.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Use backlight for a specific purpose. I like #1 better than #2. It’s much more dramatic. Bringing up the highlights in the street and the buildings would look good.

Quixdraw Loc: x

When I deliberately include the sun, it is for the drama. I may kick up the shadows a bit, but never much. I don't post photos on others threads, but do it fairly frequently, sometimes with totally satisfactory results.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Sometimes it works!
Obviously not in every circumstance though.
Maybe in general, save creative composition.

Quixdraw Loc: x

Like a lot of special techniques, IMO, it suffers when overused.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yea, some are done ad nauseam.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

"...my attempt to make it look like what I think I saw".

Keep in mind, our eyes are continuously adjusting to brightness, much like a video camera set to auto exposure, but generally quicker and smoother than a video camera does. When you shifted your view slightly downward towards the pavement or to the buildings on the left, the surrounding scene began to look brighter with more detail. Often we shift our view without being aware of doing so. So the first image is likely a more accurate representation of the very moment you looked directly into the sun, not the second image. However, the second image perhaps more accurately represents how you remember the scene.

The major short-coming of using still photography to accurately capture what we see is that we don't actually see the world as isolated pictures (even when it sometimes seems to be the case), but as a continuous string of ever-changing pictures. The still photo only represents a very brief moment, determined by the shutter speed value. In that regard, videography has greater potential to more accurately capture what we see.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I agree with Canon. You over did it a bit. I really like the first one, the second, too much brightening. This is easy fix if you had layers to help out make adjustments where needed.

Of course if your primary objective is to get it too look as you remembered it, then only you know if you got there.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If this is what it looked like, I want to party with the OP some before a shoot.

Light Up My Photos Loc: New York

Daldds,
I doubt the advice of "never shooting into the sun." Shooting into the sun may make it harder to get a correct exposure but just use whatever technique suits the moment to try to get the most dramatic image you can.

BTW...your first image is way more visually interesting than the second.

Thanks.

Martin
LightUpMyPhotos.com

User ID

Amen.

Aiming into the sun is an artistic form in itself. Trying to “normalize” such scenes is often a wasted effort even if you almost succeed. There’s a tremendous creative potential in shooting into the sun. Bracket widely. Also “bracket” your position. Small changes in position can produce some very widely varying results.

FWIW you did a decent job of normalizing the shot you posted. But, as others have mentioned, there are other impressive variations to be extracted from that file ... and similar files if you made any others.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

It is not a matter of "handling," it's a matter of choice. My advice is to tear down the walls of that box and embrace the light


here comes the sun, on Flickr


Industry edit 2020, on Flickr

User ID

Yup. Listen to Linda. Embrace is a good verb for light. Do it and the light will embrace you in return.

Also, don’t assume you need to remove the UV filter. IF you don’t have one then add one ... preferably a cheap one !

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Martin, your embedded link doesn't work; just copy paste your url into your text, and you'll be all set. Or use the html tags this way (view the tags by clicking quote reply to my message): Martin's site

To the OP, check his gorgeous examples throughout!

.