Photographer captures all of the sun’s colors in this mesmerizing composite

When I was little, I would always color the sun yellow in my drawings and I can bet you did as well. While it’s actually white, we can see it in many different hues here on Earth.

Italian photographer Marcella Pace captured all of these colors that we can observe through our eyes and our cameras. They cover many warm hues of orange, crimson, and every child’s favorite: yellow. But you’ll also see it in an unexpected cold shade of blue. Marcella shared with us her amazing composite Colors of the Sun and told us a bit about how she made it.

As you may remember, Marcella created a similar project with photos of the moon, showing all of its different colors. While it takes both cold and warm tones, the sun leans more towards the warmer ones. But you know how it can become greyish-blue when you observe it through a thin layer of clouds? Marcella captured that too.

Marcella explains that none of the images were edited, including the image of the eclipse that was “filtered” by the haze. “The suns that appear deformed because they are close to the horizon where the atmospheric density is concentrated,” Marcella explains. “The refraction tends to crush the solar disk when it is close to the horizon.”

Marcella adds that refraction modifies the vertical diameter of the sun, but doesn’t affect the horizontal diameter. Because of this, to create her composite, she used the horizontal diameter of each sun as a reference.

Nearly all 49 photos were shot in Ragusa, Sicily in Italy over a period of six years. Over this time, Marcella used different gear: Canon SX50 and SX60 HS; Nikon Coolpix P100; Nikon D7100 with a Sigma 150-600mm. The solar eclipse was taken from one of the peaks of the dolomites (Veneto, Italy).

While working as a teacher, Marcella has a huge passion for photography, especially astrophotography. So, make sure to find more of her amazing work on her website.