In photography, backlighting refers to placing the main light source for a picture behind the main subject. Professional photographers frequently use backlighting, but it can also provide special exposure and composition issues. Take the time to study backlight photography if you’re an amateur photographer, and be prepared to make a lot of mistakes on your first few shots.
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Once you master the technique, you will find yourself applying it often to create powerfully lit portraits. In case you need help on how to use natural backlight in portrait photography, here are essential tips for you.
Always Wait For The Right Moment
Backlighting is a technique used by photographers to produce dramatic lighting, whether they are working indoors or outdoors. Your photography will drastically improve if you learn backlit photography techniques. You must either shoot very early in the morning or soon after the sun rises. This time period gives great control over the light and helps you get amazing portraits whenever necessary.
The greatest periods to achieve the most spectacular backlighting are these hours. The evening, often known as the “Golden Hour,” is a very popular time for photographers to take pictures. The reason is golden light that is available gives a well-lit and more attractive portrait shot.
Understand How To Use The Spot Meter
This metering mode only cares about the exposure of a very tiny region that you can manually choose using the AF points on your camera that is present in the scene. It substantially helps photographers determine what exposure adjustments are necessary to expose a picture and highlight its qualities accurately. You must have the knowledge to use it in order to take beautiful portraits with backlights.
Regardless of how bright the rest of the frame is, spot metering enables the camera to concentrate on a certain region of the frame and decide the best exposure for it. It’s frequently chosen as the preferable metering option over others that give a generic exposure reading for the center or complete image and frequently underexposes a subject when photographing in backlight.
Always Go With Manual Mode For Portraits
The best approach to manage your exposure and prevent overexposure is to use manual settings on your camera. You will be able to achieve the best portraits in this way. Additionally, the f-stop you select will determine how your backlight will seem. Your light will be dreamy and delicate with a large aperture. As an alternative, you can produce a starburst flare by using a small aperture.
Using a wide aperture with a range of f/2.8 to f/5.6 is one technique to address this issue. Use a shutter speed of between 1/100 and 1/640 after that. Keep the ISO around 100. Get used to working with light coming from behind your subject.
Use Reflector For Better Results
To bounce part of the light from behind your subject’s back and back into their face, you can also use a reflector. You’re likely to have blurry sun flares in your picture if you’re forced to take it in a place with really intense lighting. Bright, abrasive light sources that enter the lens generate flares. If your flash is strong enough, you may turn it up and slightly underexpose the background for an awesome appearance.
The resulting effect can be distracting and may even blow out your subject, but it is not always seen as a bad thing. In fact, it is frequently added to photographs later on during post-processing. To eliminate blinding flares and block out extra light that the sensor shouldn’t be receiving, you can use a lens hood, an umbrella, or a reflector to filter the natural light. Using off-camera flash is the final and most efficient way to illuminate your subject in a backlit portrait.
Portrait photography aims at capturing the personality, character, and emotions. It can either be candid or artistic. Portrait photography requires more than just the ability to understand your camera settings, lighting, and composition.
You must also possess the ability to connect with your subjects and capture their unique qualities. So, it is a difficult but rewarding genre of photography.
Click Below to read a comprehensive guide to learning and mastering the art of portrait photography.
Hiding The Light Behind Your Subject
An easy tip to give you better and blistering results for a portrait is to hide the light behind the subject. This is a great concept, especially if you’re taking portraits at the time of day known as the golden hour. It can alter an image’s lens flare by adding or removing it. The most important thing to keep in mind while setting up a backlit image is to pay attention to the subject and how the light is affecting them.
Change Your Position
You don’t have to shoot from a single position when facing the light. Knowing how to use the light to your advantage allows you to walk around and catch your subject from various angles. When you take photographs in low light, go ahead and try out some other camera positions. Since your location can affect the illumination, your subject receives, shifting it can help you choose the greatest and most attractive lighting angles.
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Simply moving a few feet to the left or right can have a dramatic impact on the portrait when using backlight in a photograph.
Use Fill Flash For Advantage
In a backlit portrait, a fill flash can be used as an additional light source. The subject’s face can appear darker than the rest of the picture due to the intense backlighting. You can fix this by using fill flash to illuminate the areas that your main light or natural light can’t reach. Fill flash can be used as an alternative to reflectors, particularly an external flash that is not pointed directly at your subject to prevent flat and ugly lighting.
It functions similarly, enhancing the available natural light to improve the subject and background exposure balance. But it offers you much more latitude to change the angle and intensity of the light hitting your subject’s face.
What Impact Does Backlighting Have on Portrait Photography?
If done properly, backlighting may be a very powerful weapon to create wonderful portraits. Backlighting may give photos a deeper feeling of space and a more emotive look if used properly. Not all photographs benefit from backlighting, nor is it the most straightforward lighting technique in photography. Backlighting’s main effects include the following:
Effective Use Of Daylight
Backlighting can be a smart method to make the most of your lighting situation to create a dramatic and emotive image when you’re shooting outside with little natural light.
Dramatic Result
A striking contrast between the subject and the background can be created via backlighting. When photographing outside portraits, this method can be extremely useful.
Depth Effect
Backlight photography highlights the depth behind the subject and enhances the sense of place in the image.