Shooting down and into the sun

[dreed]

Whilst out on a day trip, I had a planned end at the top of a small hill to try get something to happen for sunset with long shadows. Unfortunately there was a line of cloud close to the horizon that meant sunlight would disappear well before the sun sank below the edge of the world. The air was somewhat hazy so I tried to pull something off before the sun disappeared. In the attached image, the sun is actually out of frame (to the top.)

I'm curious about how others would approach this kind of situation and whether or not I've done the best that I could?

[wmchauncey]

Assuming that you think that its a image worth saving...if you have the skillset, extreme PP is in order.
You tried to force a shot...it rarely works.     

[BernardLanguillier]

I would start with a lens able to preserve better contrast in backlit situation, then proceed by layering 2 images, one as is and the second one with the sun obstructed.

Then you could of course go with a different composition, using a super tele to zoom on some smaller scale features in the landscape such as specular reflections on small bodies of water,...

Cheers,
Bernard

[Rajan Parrikar]

Also: in certain situations, consider shading the lens (a hood isn't enough).

[Iluvmycam]

OP, you can shoot into the sun, but it degrades the pix. Your sample pix looks nice. Fool around with it some and see what is the best you can do.

Sometimes we can't avoid the sun.

nsfw

http://orderwomenlikepizza.tumblr.com/image/87540543890

This had twenty something versions. Being a street and doc photog I have to take what lighting I can get most of the time.

Same with this one. While it was not into the sun. The window was the main light source.

http://hasselbladswc.tumblr.com/image/110814472967

[RSL]

It's not really that bad a picture. It reminds me of the opening scenes in "Lawrence of Arabia." It needs a bit of post-processing, and I've done the best I could working with a jpeg, but you probably could improve on it more working with the raw file. As Rajan pointed out, shading the lens can help. Sometimes you can get good results in backlight if you cover part of the sun with a branch or some other handy gobo -- as I did in "Backlight," which is posted nearby. This kind of shot always is worth trying, even if you think it might fail.

[Bruce Cox]

By adding a color gradient and using Russ's work , etc., I got this.