Dean writes: "The race had finished, the sun was low and in front. My mate put his camera away and said you can't get a photo now because of the sun. That sounded like a challenge to me. Low sun and through a safety fence was something I couldn't resist."
Hi Dean,
Making photographs through a chain link fence is never easy, particularly at an event like the Australian Formula One. In fact, I would rate it a lot harder than actually shooting into the sun. For that reason I would say “10-points” for getting this photo in the first place without actually capturing any fencing.
As for shooting into the sunlight, this is actually where a lot of good photographs can be made. If you have not already noticed, the best photographs are usually the ones from a situation that most people would not notice, and given most people do not spend time looking into sunlight, they often miss photos like this.
The most important thing to remember when photographing directly into sunlight is to shade the lens; this helps control flare and permits you to achieve more contrast and shadow detail in the subject. A lens hood is often good enough at doing this job, but when the sun gets low in the sky it can be necessary to use some other technique to block sunlight from entering the lens. This might involve using the shadow from some signage or trees to block the direct sunlight, but sometimes I just get a friend to hold a hat or a magazine near the lens to block sunlight from falling onto the front element.
All you need to do then is manage your exposure; more often than not underexposure is better than overexposure. I think you have done well in managing both the lens shading and the exposure in this photograph.
About the only thing I would suggest changing next time is the cropping… ideally you could have had the camera tilted a little lower to include the bottom of the rear wheel, and if you had zoomed out a little, or just made the photo a half second later you would have had the front and rear of the car in too.
Cheers, Anthony