Oct 3, 2012, 21:06
You may already know that back lighting can be pretty awesome in portrait photography. When done right, back lit portraits look more dramatic, vivid and full of life. Important factor to get the perfect exposure here is to expose for the light in the shadowed face, may be using spot metering. You can also use a flash-gun to slightly eliminate the shadows, preserving the natural look. By this way you will be able to get a nice rim light, which will give a mood and an atmosphere to your otherwise lifeless shots. While its quiet difficult to get a perfectly back lit shot in the middle of the day, with sun as your back lighting source, effects can be pretty awesome during the golden hours.
Now here is another great shot, that you can make with the use of back lighting. I learnt this wonderful method from the great photographer Bryan F Peterson. He introduces this as Flowers in the Rain. Here is the steps for doing that.
1.You will need back lighting ( Sun is the best choice, and its free!)
2. Flowers put in a vessel (Flowers with almost transparent, soft petals works really fine)
3.A water sprinkler
And of course, your camera. Now position the flowers against the sun so that you can shoot into the sun. Ask your friend, or a family member to sprinkle water on the flowers while you are taking the shot. Compose carefully. Shoot in manual mode, adjust your shutter-speed to 1/60 th of a second and shoot.
You’ll be amazed to see the wonderful photograph you just created, rain drops hugging the flower petals, light filtering through the soft petals etc. etc.
The winner of the 2012 National Geographic Nature Photo Competition had used the same technique with a dragonfly.
Now here is another great shot, that you can make with the use of back lighting. I learnt this wonderful method from the great photographer Bryan F Peterson. He introduces this as Flowers in the Rain. Here is the steps for doing that.
1.You will need back lighting ( Sun is the best choice, and its free!)
2. Flowers put in a vessel (Flowers with almost transparent, soft petals works really fine)
3.A water sprinkler
And of course, your camera. Now position the flowers against the sun so that you can shoot into the sun. Ask your friend, or a family member to sprinkle water on the flowers while you are taking the shot. Compose carefully. Shoot in manual mode, adjust your shutter-speed to 1/60 th of a second and shoot.
You’ll be amazed to see the wonderful photograph you just created, rain drops hugging the flower petals, light filtering through the soft petals etc. etc.
The winner of the 2012 National Geographic Nature Photo Competition had used the same technique with a dragonfly.