Including the sun in your pictures is a bold way to get striking pictures. Many photographers however refrain from including the sun in their picturs because they are afraid that this might damage the shutter or the sensor of the camera. But rest assured, this won’t happen, especially if you take the pictures shortly after sunrise ore before sunset.

The Size of the Sun in the picture

How big the sun appears in the image depends on the focal lenght of the lens. The longer the focal length the larger the sun will appear. The following image was taken with a 50 mm lens on a full frame camera:

Photo of white frosted trees and a field in winter with the sun shining on a blue sky

Compare this to the next image that was shot with a 500 mm telephoto lens:

Photo of the sunset over the mountains in South Africa with a red sky

Note that even with that pretty long focal length the sun still does not appear really big.

Exposure

When the sun is included in the composition exposure can be tricky. The bright sunlight can result in images that are too dark. However, at sunrise and sunset, when it is still fairly dark and when, in addition, the sun appears relatively small in the image, generally the opposite is true: the images tend to be overexposed. But of course this can be easily corrected. Just take a test shot, have a look at the histogramm and dial in an appropriate exposure compensation.

Lens Flare

One of the unfortunate side effects when you inlcude the sun in the image are lens flares. They are coused by reflections inside the lens and come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Thes flares can ruin the picture and there is little you can do about them. The following picture is a good example.

Photo of the skyline of San Francisco in California, USA at sunset with the Golden Gate Bridge

You can try to find a slightly different perspective and sometimes the flare diminishes or, with a lot af luck, completely vanishes.