For the 2012 Venus Transit I did not even bother bringing my long lens. Not sure whether that was smart or not but since my camera does not have Live View, I was a it afraid I might stare at the sun through a 400 mm glass along with a 1.4x telephoto converter. And since there was a good chance that might go on for more than an hour, I have opted for a wide angle approach.

I wanted to get some foreground in the photo to make my Venus Transit a little unique and give it sense of place, to show where in the world it was taken. I read couple articles before the event and thought that might be the way to go.

Quickly did I realize how futile that effort was with a single exposure. Exposing for the foreground rendered the sun glare so powerful that Venus was obliterated and invisible. Exposing for the sun, the foreground was nothing but a world of black. A composite may be the only solution but I am not sure that is my cup of tea, we will see. About 30 minutes before sunset, the exposure for sun was f/22 and 1/8000 sec via a 6-stop ND filter! With the filter in place, the foreground exposure was f/22 and 2 seconds! That is 14 stops apart, right?

Just before the sunset, the difference was significantly smaller and I could expose the sun at 1/250 sec @ f/16 via the 6-stop ND filter, but still way short of getting even a silhouette of the foreground. Again, over a few months, maybe I will find a way to process my heavily bracketed shots into a presentable result. For now, I just wanted to share this experience so that you can learn from it and shoot the next one better (in 2117).

Ok, so this may not be of much use for the next Venus Transit but it does show what the trick is to get the sun properly exposed. It does not have to be an overexposed ball of fire. Just before sunset, it can be done with a fast shutter speed and a small aperture. If it is 30 minutes or more before sunset, a dark ND filter can help to still get it done.

I've added the third photo just to show the sun more up close, with the proper exposure for the sun, rendering even the strong reflection off of Lake Erie almost invisible. The was with the sun starting to dip below the horizon and with clouds rolling in. You can clearly see Venus in this photo in top right of the sun, just above the clouds.

Have fun and be careful, as this post shows, the sun's rather bright and it's not just the visible light that reaches your eyes!