Can I get good pictures if I shoot into the sun?

Can I get good pictures if I shoot into the sun?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: How do I prevent getting the "red-eye" effect?; How can I take red-eye out of my photos?; How do I capture fireworks with my digital camera? and more...

Shooting into the sun is one of my favorite types of light. It's called, "back light" because everything gets this beautiful halo around it. Now, the exposure can be kind of tricky. You can use the sun in slow mode or the back light mode in the camera. But, what I like to do is use the spot metering mode, and then light meter for the subject. And that way the subject is light metered properly and the background will generally be to light. We don't care about the background because it's all about the subject in our picture. Under back light another option is to use the flash. You can use fill-in flash when shooting into the sun. But, one other thing I don't like about doing that is that the fill-in flash ruins that beautiful back light look that you created. Now, it's a different type of picture. You may like the fill-in flash look; you may like the back light look. And, that's why photography is so great, because there is never one right answer to any problem. And, its all depends on what you see, what you like and what you want to create with your pictures.