Shooting on the UMP with Sun in Frame

[Gabriel Devereux]

For an upcoming shoot we will be shooting on an Ursa Mini Pro. The director wishes for several shots of ‘sun in frame’. 

This is an example from Y Tu Mama -

With this I have two questions. 

I have always had the idea in my head that the sun should rarely be in frame as it can damage the lens and camera sensor. The director also wishes for me to have the sun in frame in mid morning shots as well so less atmosphere. Would this damage the camera even if properly exposed for? A lot of the shots the director has shown for influence comes from the tree of life and the Revenant with significant back lighting. I understand Emmanuel Lubezki shot digital on the revenant (Of course on a different camera) so I imagine that having the sun in shot won’t damage the digital sensor? However I’d like to make sure!

My second question is how would one go about achieving the example shot I’ve given. I understand it’s almost late sunset-sunrise but the lack of flare and just the sun not being an overexposed mess and the actors not being in complete silhouette amazes me. Am I missing something? Is it waiting for the right amount of atmosphere?

I apologise for the rookie questions and the poor grammar! I’ve written this on my iPad.

Gabe

Edited March 3, 2020 by Gabriel Devereux