Avoiding flare and ghosting
In landscape photography the direction of the light can really change the feel or atmosphere of a picture. Sometimes, an opportunity will present itself where you don't have good front light. However, pictures taken into backlight can sometimes look whitish or hazy and not as vivid as when you actually saw the scene. This is caused by the flare and ghosting effects.

Be aware of flare and ghosting when shooting into backlight
You can reduce the occurrence of flare and ghosting by being careful that direct sunlight will not enter the lens. You can try to block direct sunlight from entering the lens by covering it with your hand or in a similar way. Note that flare and ghosting can occur even if the light source does not appear on the picture so pay attention to the location of your source of light.
When flare occurs as a result of shooting into backlight, the whole picture will seem whitish and at first sight may appear overexposed. Ghosting are the mostly pentagon-shaped artifacts that appear with back lighting. The reason for both is sunlight hitting directly the surface of the lens. This phenomenon cannot be avoided by adjusting the exposure compensation. You can prevent light from hitting the lens directly by holding your hand over the camera or lens. Also, you can position yourself in the shadow of a tree or in some other shadowed place. It would also be a good idea to prepare beforehand a black sheet of paper or some other cover.

Check the actual artifacts in the following pictures

Useful things to remember

When you protect the lens from direct sunlight, be careful that the hand you're holding over the camera doesn't get in the picture.