How to take a photo with the light source behind the subject.

<p dir="ltr">Hello all,<br>

<br />I often find myself in a situation where I see potential for a quality photograph however the light source is behind the subject. In other words, take a photo captured outside with the sun behind the subject. I know that this is a bad practice and that it should be avoided if at all possible but lets assume that you can’t take the photo from any other angle. If you meter to the subject, then the sun will come out way too bright but if you meter to the sunlight then the subject will be nothing but black. Any suggestions you may be able to offer are greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Use a flash.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>

<p>Light source behind the subject is not usually the best if you want to see detail in your subject. However it is realy fine when you prefer a silhouette (often a quite powerful image depending upon the context) or elsewhere where you may want to obscure (whitewash) the surrounding background for artistic reasons.</p>

<p>A fill flash (seeking a balance between natural and flash lighting) can solve the difficulty somewhat. However, it is limited in the sense that it often gives very flat featureless lighting (however adequate in clarity) and creates a problem of non accordance between shadows on surrounding objects and that of the principal subject. If you have the option and if your aim is to see the subject in better detail it is often much better to wait for the appropriate frontal or side lighting that will better sculpt your subject.</p>

<p>If I am silhouetting a subject I often choose top put it at one of the sides of my image and not show the subject completely. This lack of detail and graphism and showing only part of the subject adds to the mystery of the image and engages the viewer. But for family type photos it is enough to simply use the simple flash approach.</p>

<p>Having the sun behind the subject can be very desirable. It can provide nice rim lighting or backlighting that separates the subject from the background. But as you've discovered it does provide exposure challenges. Your first option, particularly in a closeup, is to expose for the shadow side of the subject and let the background fall where it may. The other is to provide fill light on the subject, either from a reflector or flash, to balance out the exposure.</p>

<p>Reflector for fill light may also help. But, yes, this is a lighting question. <br>

Well, you could pull film to have 15 stops of dynamic range. </p>

 

<p>

Nick, reflectors, flash and a change of exposure (higher ISO, larger aperture, or slower shutter) can help. The first two will help balance the light behind the subject, the last (exposure) will cause bright lights to be blown out.</p>

<I> Mod note:<br>

 

This thread has been moved, and a couple of replies have been edited to keep things on track. <p>

It's fairly common for

folks to inadvertently tap the wrong forum

immediately adjacent to the intended forum,

especially when using mobile devices or notebooks

with tiny chicklet keyboards.<p>

 

Usually it's better to notify mods, via private

messages or on the site help forum, about minor

housekeeping chores such as moving threads to the

forum best suited to the topic. Helps minimize

thread drift.<p>

 

Thanks.</I>

<p>I am with Craig in thinking back lighting is very desirable in many situations and definitely not a NO-NO .... But and it is a BIG BUT it depends on how you handle the situation. You have found the way to get a silhouette so the next question is how do you add light to lighten the shadow.<br>

For closer subjects there is the lovely flash built into the camera which is excellent for this purpose and if you reduce the 'flash setting' to minus one stop it usually gives an acceptable result though personal preference may indicate a minus 1.5 or- 2 stop .... your choice.<br>

For more distance subjects there is the HDR technique were you take several frames and the computer takes what it wants and gives you a picture with detail from shadows to highlights. Your camera may be able to do this automatically with you choosing ie. -1/0/+1 stops or perhaps -2/0/+2 etc.<br>

An older approach is to know the range that your camera can handle and adjust the exposure so that it covers the range you think important to you. Letting some of the highlights burn out and unimportant shadow detail go to black. But bear in mind that the camera is probably capable of recording a greater range than a print can handle as one example. Here a knowledge of you editor's tools can be a help with tools like 'Fill Flash'.<br>

Again very much a personal choice of what and how you want the subject to be rendered.<br>

A very important lesson for a beginner to learn is that what the camera produces may not be the end of the matter and quite apart from basic adjustments that a simple editor can do there is a lot more that a skilled editor can do with a more sophisticated programme.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Hi,<br /><br />There is no "best practice" since there is no standard result to measure the outcome against. You should challenge these scenes and find your own ways to do them. You will soon find out that there are multiple ways to catch the scene, and each one emphasizes different aspects of the scene.<br /><br />Back-lit scenes are by no means bad practice. I would say that you should rather seek them and challenge them instead of avoiding them. They might be challenging in that you will have to make decisions before you take the picture, decisions that cannot be changed afterwards in the post processing. But they also have opportunities that is difficult to find in other scenes. There are of course different techniques that will help you, like flash, reflectors, HDR etc. that you have already been advised on. You can even use lens "faults" creatively by letting lens flare, stray light and reflections be part of your creative image. But the important part is first to decide how you want the scene rendered.</p>

<p>Hope this was of any help. If not, print it out, curl it up and throw it in the trash.<br>

<br>

Cheers,<br /><br>

Frode Langset<br /><br>

<br>

(And excuse my English. It is not my native language)<br /></p>