As a photographer who loves natural light, most of my images contain an amount of back lighting. Backlighting refers to placing the lighting, whether natural, like the sun, or artificial, like a flash, behind the subject you are shooting. This technique makes the edges of your subject glow, while other part of the subject remain darker. This is also how you can accomplish getting those silhouette images, where your subject is black, and the background has lots of color! I personally love backlighitng! I love the effect it creates, and the softness it adds to my pictures.
To backlight properly, place your subject infront of a light source, usually the sun. If a little bit of the sun peeks around the subject, you might get an effect known as flare, but we will talk about that in another post! You want to make sure your manual settings are set to expose properly for the subjects face, not the background. Like I said before, the background may be washed out a bit, and over exposed, but I am not a landscape photographer, so I do not expose for the background in many cases. It can take a couple test shots before you have the image properly backlit, but once you do, the edges around your subject should glow. Here is a few images of backlighting:
Tomorrow I will post about how to create a silhouette effect with your pictures. So be sure to check in, this effect is really cool, and can make for an amazing picture of your little ones, or family! Happy Shooting!!!
love & laughter :: e.d.
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