Photographing with backlight is the magic of light and shadow. When the light comes from behind the subject directly into the lens, it can create soft light on a person's hair or reveal the translucency of flower petals. But when photographing, underexposure, blurriness, or glare often occur. This article explains how to take beautiful pictures with backlight.
The core of photographing with backlight always lies in properly using a suitable lens. Now let us explore the key technique together and take photos with backlight using the right lens.
Photographing with backlight: The teller of emotions
Backlight is by no means a mistake, but a conscious choice. Unlike front light, where the light falls directly on the subject, backlight gives the image a unique emotional language through the special spatial relationship between light and subject.
With backlight, the subjects of the pictures can be highlighted. When the light enters the hair or leaves from behind, it creates bright areas along the contours of the subjects, separating them from the background. The visual focus lies precisely on the model.
The translucency created by backlight can make the subjects more lively. When photographing semi-transparent or transparent things like a glass of water or flower petals, it seems to shine from within. Ordinary subjects appear to be able to breathe. With backlight, the leaf is lit from behind and the veins are clearly visible.
Backlight early in the morning has a cold blue or purple hue, while late in the evening it is warm orange and golden. The coloring of the backlight can give the image a special mood. Is it the hope of the morning or the tenderness of the evening? The backlight gives the viewers the answer directly.
Why do we keep failing at photographing with backlight?
The beauty and difficulty of backlight come together. Many beginners and even advanced photographers still fail at these technical subtleties. These three pain points affect 90% of people.
Underexposure of the main subject
With backlight, the light mainly concentrates behind the main subject. The camera’s exposure system often leads to underexposure of the main subjects. In portrait photography, the face appears too dark, and in still life shots like flowers, only the outlines remain visible.
Glare and ghost images spoil the pictures
When light shines directly into the lens and reflects on the glass, glare and ghost images occur, ruining the pictures. The romantic backlight can thus lead to overexposure and blurred images.
Focusing difficulties
With backlight, there are large differences between bright and dark areas, so the camera’s autofocus system does not work properly. Focus hesitation is common. Sometimes it simply focuses on the background, causing the actual main subject to become blurred.
Tips for photographing with backlight
With backlight, the light is often weak. Above all, a large aperture is important because it can capture more light. Furthermore, a lens with a large aperture is indispensable to shorten the shutter speed, while efficiently reducing ISO noise. And most importantly, the shallow depth of field created by the large aperture makes the image full of mood and emotion.
Anti-glare coating lets the light reach the sensor directly and can thus reduce light reflection inside the lens. This successfully avoids glare.
A fast and precise autofocus is also a great advantage. With backlight, you need a good lens to quickly focus on the subject even in poor lighting conditions. The lenses of the SIRUI AURORA Series 85mm F1.4 Full-frame Autofocus Lens are a good choice here. The large F1.4 aperture and fast autofocus ensure sharp images with precise colors even with backlight. Thanks to aspherical lenses, ED glass, and HR glass, outstanding optical performance is achieved – with well-controlled stray light and few ghost images.
Conclusion
Photographing with backlight is by no means a challenge, but a means of expression. And a suitable lens can help you greatly to ease and free this expression of light. Now is the time to capture the emotions of light with the lens and tell the story of light and shadow.
