Sunsets and sunrises make some of the most picturesque frames in photography. But what do you do if you wish to capture the sun in broad day light? Firstly if you direct your camera towards the sun, without a UV filter like the Hoya UV Pro1 Digital 58mm, then your camera sensors or your film is likely to get destroyed because sun rays have UV rays that are invisible but harmful. Capturing the almighty sun in broad daylight can be quite a task, but, if taken properly, they can be quite rare and exclusive pictures. If you wish to capture that ball of fire then make sure you are equipped with a solar filter. Solar filters are made up of Baader Astro Safety Film. These films are far more superior to any glass material and they not only protect your camera lens and sensors, but also lead to brighter, higher and sharper contrast images.

As you can see on the image on your left, these filters have double sided metal coatings with a uniform density, ensuring razor sharp images edge to edge. Solar filters are specially made with a good colour balance and have limited diffraction so that the sun rays and light won’t get refracted much or disperse. Solar filters are generally labeled as ND 5, which means that they are the equivalent to a Neutral Density filter with a filter rating of 5 and they reduce the intensity of light by 9 stops.

These filters are durable and can be used with low aperture cameras as well. The image on the right has been taken with a solar filter. Through a solar filter the Sun appears in its “real ”colour —neutral white, not blue or orange, and the sky adjacent to the solar limb is jet black.