Shoot with the strongest light behind the subject

When the brightest light is coming from behind the subject the photo feels three dimensional.

 

Bright light behind

Use the brightest light as a back light or highlight on your subject. For still life images like this piece of cake, the photographer is using the light from a window behind the cake. A small piece of paper is used to reflect some light back onto the front side.

 

Photographing People

With portraits of people there are some big benefits of shooting with the strong light behind the subject. The light creates a beautiful rim/highlight in the hair and on the shoulders. Additionally the big benefit is that because the model is not looking into the sun, the eyes remain wide open and there are no harsh sun spots or shadows on the face.

Some things to keep in mind:

• You must protect your lens from direct sunlight. In all of the examples below, the photographer is either in the shade or is shading the lens from sunlight
• The best results have the sun/bright light at a slight angle behind the subject, roughly 30-45 degrees, rather than right behind the model.
• If you see a hot spot of sunlight hitting the cheek or nose, reposition slightly until the full face is on the shade side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backlighting

Here are some sample images that I feel exemplify the idea of the backlighting.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”31″ gal_title=”Backlighting Lesson 7 Composition”]

 

EXERCISE: Practice on a still life such as a stuffed animal, or a well behaved pet. Position the subject with the sun from behind at a slight angle. You will need to adjust the shutter speed to make the face brighter or darker. You will discover that as the face gets brighter, so to do the highlights where the sun is hitting from behind. 

NOTE: To ensure the highlight in the hair looks like a highlight and not just an over exposed head, you must ensure that there is a relatively dark background. (below)  

 

Highlight Control

Note the position of the dark tree in the background. This is done on purpose to create a highlight in the hair. Without a dark background the girls hair would appear overexposed rather than showing up as a highlight

 

 

EXERCISE: When Sunlight hits the lens, the effect is like that of putting a thin film overtop, which mutes colours and makes the image appear over exposed. (below)

Try shooting an image while shooting with direct sunlight on the lens and then a second image while you are shading the lens completely