How do you avoid glare when photographing the sunset?

[jilliantodd]

I noticed that if I take my 50mm lens, I have lots of glare.Just let me know what you think. if anybody else have other ideas, I would be happy to know it.

 

[Designer]

Did your lens come with coatings on it to reduce glare?

Do you have any other piece of glass on the front, such as a filter?

 

[D-B-J]

Coatings help SIGNIFICANTLY. For sunsets I typically use my 16-35 F4 VRII, which has nano crystal coating, ED glass, and aspherical elements. All of those fancy things help reduce glare and improve transmission/sharpness. However, shooting at the sun will almost always leave you with some sort of flare.

Cheers!
Jake

Also, as designer mentioned, filters add more "elements" to the lens and compound those flaring issues.

 

[KmH]

Filters added to the front of your lens add an air gap. Air gaps are where lens flare happens.
Really good filters (expensive) have coatings to help minimize flare, but having the sun in the frame makes minimizing glare and lens flare a tough nut to crack.
Nikon's Nano coating is excellent in that regard.

When making portrait photographs using flash to balance the back lighting from the sun really helps minimize glare and makes the subject 'pop'. Pop is a shorthand way of saying the subject is well separated from the background. In the case of a back lit subject separation from the background is mostly about light rather than a shallow depth-of-field.

 

[Derrel]

Some lenses flare badly whens shot right toward bright light sources. Canon's 50mm f/1.8 EF-II is a good example of a 50mm lens that flares very badly when aimed toward the sun. Mine suffered from HUGE, green flares covering 75% of the frame at times. Some lenses are just not that good when shooting right toward bright light sources; one way to get way from that is to buy a better-grade of lens in that focal length, since higher-end lenses almost always have better flare-resistance than entry-level lenses do.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I think you're talking about flare instead of glare; that's usually on glass or windows etc. or on a hazy day. The flare is from the angle the light's hitting your lens as well as the quality of the lens. Wait and try again as the sun's going down, the angle will keep changing so you might be able to minimize or eliminate the flare (but as you're losing light you may or may not get a good photo). You could also try changing your vantage point to see if that makes a difference. If it's more due to the lens it might limit what you can do.