The Sun: Man's Friend & Foe

The Sun is a photographers friend, it provides the light necessary to take great photos, but the Sun can make a photographers job difficult at times. A photographer cannot take good pictures unless his body is turned so that the Sun, or other source of light is at an angle of about 45 degrees; it should never be directly behind him. The few exceptions to this rule are when it is sunset, dusk, or sunrise and there is equal light in most areas.

"Virtually all of the astronaut photos are of objects that are brightly illuminated by the Sun, so to capture them on film without overexposing the image, you need a relatively short exposure. These short exposures do not provide enough time for the film to capture images of the stars."

- Scott Kardel of Lake Afton Public Observatory

A question often asked is: "Why you can't see the stars in photos taken by spacecraft or videos made by astronomers?". The reason for this is that stars are not bright enough in comparison with the much closer Sun. The Sun's light drowns out that of the stars; even those many times brighter than itself are effected. Some images taken in darkness on the dark side of the Earth do show stars but often the short exposure time necessary to produce photos of objects in space is not long enough to catch the stars on film.

Photographers who want to photograph boats, fishing or other nautical scenes have difficulty. Shooting over water, particularly into the Sun, challenges any lens to control flare. Excess ultraviolet rays are also a problem in marine settings. Photographers use various techniques to overcome these situations including filters and special film.

In completely shadowless lighting, where the Sun is directly above, or on an overcast day it is very difficult for a photographer to perceive depth relationships. Objects will seem to blend into each other and not tend to separate as distinctly. When taking a portrait such conditions are usually less than ideal because it gives a feeling of no depth to the picture that shadows usually provide.