How to photograph the sun

Rick Shepardson · February 11, 2009

Greetings,

I need to shoot some B-roll photography of the sun moving through the sky. We tried to do this once on the fly after the shoot finished early. However, it didn't turn out well. The sun looked out of focus. I imagine this would have been either uncorectable haze or just the huge flare created by pointing the lens at the brightest light in the solor system.

I have shot the sun succesfully before, but this was at sun set and not quite the effect that the director is looking for. Unfortunately

Ideally, the sun would appear as a defined circle with circular flares.

I know that there are solar filters which help correct these problems

does anybody have advice?

BTW technical specs are

kodak 7217 D

ziess 11-110 mm zoom

thanks,

rick shepardson

David Rakoczy · February 11, 2009

Greetings,
I need to shoot some B-roll photography of the sun moving through the sky. We tried to do this once on the fly after the shoot finished early. However, it didn't turn out well. The sun looked out of focus. I imagine this would have been either uncorectable haze or just the huge flare created by pointing the lens at the brightest light in the solor system.

I have shot the sun succesfully before, but this was at sun set and not quite the effect that the director is looking for. Unfortunately

Ideally, the sun would appear as a defined circle with circular flares.

I know that there are solar filters which help correct these problems

does anybody have advice?

BTW technical specs are

kodak 7217 D

ziess 11-110 mm zoom

thanks,

rick shepardson

7217 is a T.. not a D.

What you get really depends on the lens as far how much flaring you will receive.

Rick Shepardson · February 12, 2009

7217 is a T.. not a D.

What you get really depends on the lens as far how much flaring you will receive.

So, I assume that a prime lens would be better than variable length? Like I said, I would like some flaring-but not so much that the sun is just a blob. I'll try to find a visual reference.

Sorry about the D. I've been kicking myself trying to learn filmstocks by number.

Thanks,

Rick

David Rakoczy · February 12, 2009

Hey, no problem... ;)

You really won't know what you will get without testing I'm afraid... I know I was stressing the first time I shot time lapse of the sun rising with my Zeiss Super Speed Primes but they handled it great. A great quality Variable may flare less than a poorer quality Prime. of course the term (poorer) is relative to what kind of flaring or lack of flare desired.