| Sure, these pictures may border on cliches, but they | | | | an area of the sky near but not immediately |
| are cliches that never fail to grab us. We're all | | | | adjacent to the sun - an area in which some sky |
| suckers for that frame-filling drama of Ol' Sol looming | | | | tone appears. This will give you a silhouette reading |
| large on the horizon. | | | | that will still maintain a little shadow detail. |
| And we all know how to get those shots of big | | | | And how do you focus and compose with that big |
| suns - just shoot the horizon with that fabulously | | | | burning disk staring you right in the eye? First, if |
| expensive, super-speed, extralow-dispersion glass, | | | | everything in your frame is a long distance from the |
| apochromatic tele, right? | | | | camera, setting the lens to infinity is the easiest way |
| Wrong. You need a long lens, sure, but it needn't be | | | | to focus without being dazzled. Otherwise, you may |
| a budget buster. Some very good 500mm mirror | | | | prefocuse the camera with the sun just out of the |
| lenses come in under $200, store price. There are | | | | frame. You can often recompose the scene by |
| all-glass 400mm, 500mm, and 600mm designs from | | | | holding your eye a little away from the finder to |
| major independents that sell for $300-500. And you | | | | avoid being temporarily blinded by the sun. |
| can make an existing tele longer by using a | | | | The best big-sun shots are the ones that don't rely |
| teleconverter. That fine 300mm f/4 you bought for | | | | solely on the sun; the big sun, in fact, is best used as |
| nature work, for example, can be converted to a | | | | a background. The landscape, the harbor scene, the |
| 600mm f/8 with a 2X converter. That's a pretty | | | | city skyline - each picture should stand on its own for |
| good focal length for big suns. Using a 3X converter | | | | it to work with a big sun behind it. |
| will make a 900mm f/12, and so on. | | | | There is a pitfall here, though. Even with objects at |
| Besides a tele, you need a sturdy tripod - flimsy | | | | a far distance, they can still be out of the plane of |
| travel models need not apply. For one thing, focusing | | | | focus of the sun, due to the effective shallow depth |
| and framing through a long tele is far easier if the rig | | | | of long lenses. Generally, the sun can stand to be a |
| is well supported. For another thing, even a little | | | | little soft, so try focusing on the nearest large object |
| shake can blur a long-tele shot. | | | | in the composition. Also, use small apertures and |
| A spot or limited-area meter helps, although it is not | | | | check the depth-of-field preview. |
| essential. An overall meter reading with an SLR will | | | | Big-sun shots can, on occasion, be surprisingly |
| generally be far too high, resulting in a shot that's too | | | | colorless; the sky around the sun can range from |
| dark - even if the desired effect is a silhouette. Most | | | | blank white to dull gray. |
| big-sun shooters use the strategy of spotmetering | | | | |