What is the rule of thumb when you know that your holy grail timelapse will be shooting directly into the sun at some point? I find the histogram difficult to interpret when the camera is facing towards the sun, especially if the sky is clear. Given that most of our cameras don't go lower than ISO 100, and have a max shutter of 1/4000 or maybe 1/8000, what aperture should I be using? I'm gathering from looking at your vimeo tutorial that it should be no lower than f8. I have older cameras with lower ISO, so I have been using f 3.5 and 5.6, but the sun is really getting blown out after sunrise (do you call that blooming?). I wondered if anyone had a target in mind for what the exposure should be at the moment the sun is facing directly at the camera. Thanks,

I'd generally avoid the sun being in the frame, when it is so bright. And if you do it, take care to not do the holy grail adjustments while the sun is in the frame, because this would lead to pumping as long as the area around the sun is blown out. See: https://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-aft...n-pulsates
Also, smaller aperture most likely will show dirt on your sensor, that's why I would try to avoid apertures smaller than f/8.

Thanks I appreciate your kind advice. I will check out the link.