Photographers love working with the long afternoon light because it has fantastic quality. One of the many things we can do with such coveted light source is backlighting the photos.
What is a backlit photograph? Well, the term is pretty self-explanatory… it means the main light source, in this case the sun, is coming from behind the subject or opposite the camera.
Creating Backlit Shots
- You would need the sun to be at a low axis. Figure out the timing in your locale and the time the sun sets. Needless to say, it would be a lot harder to get a backlight shot at noon.
- Position the subject between the lens and the sunlight. This is the hardest part of the shot. That means allowing rays entering the lens which creates flares. Too much flare will cause you to lose details. So the trick is getting the right angles and exposure.
I find it best to have the subjects angled in a manner that they block out the direct sunlight.
- The Right Exposure
The next step is to get the right exposure. As you would expect with such strong light source, by default you will likely get a silhouetted shot. So we have to bump the exposure up by 2 to 3 stops. You can do that either via manual exposure or increasing the EV value in you prefer working in automatic modes.
That’s it. Let there be backlight!
