Summer has come, the sun has become very terrible, even the time of taking photos also had to change with time, the weather is hot, do not want to go out, the light outside is too strong, take out is not backlight is not a good-looking stiff shadow, how can in the fierce sunshine take a good-looking photo?  

1. What is backlight shooting？

Backlight photography is when the subject is halfway between the camera and the light source.  The light source is behind the subject and the camera is in front of the subject.  

2. Why use a backlight?

(1) Backlight photography will bring great depth to the photos.

Photos taken in the early morning or evening will make the dark foreground and background of the picture brighter, the saturation of the front darker, and the saturation of the back becomes lighter, thus causing the whole picture to change from far to near, from light to thick, from light to dark, forming a subtle sense of spatial depth.  

(2) Backlight shooting will bring a great visual impact to the photos.

In backlight shooting, due to the increase of the proportion of the dark part, a considerable part of the details are covered by shadows, and the subject appears in the picture with simple lines or a small area of light. Such a large light ratio and high contrast give a strong visual impact, thus producing a strong artistic modeling effect. 

 It can make the background under backlight, underexposure so that the background is purified, to achieve the effect of highlighting the subject.  At the same time, as a result of contrast being larger, light and dark light layout is intense, can make the character face some lack of strong light to be diluted, can use the shadow of the backlight to hide, to obtain the effect of exploiting strengths and avoiding weaknesses.  

(3) Backlight shooting will bring strong texture to the subject.

Backlight photography is especially good for translucent objects.  Shooting translucent objects will make the backlight irradiation can improve the brightness and saturation of transparent objects so that plain transparent or translucent objects under the light show a beautiful luster and a better sense of transparency;  On the other hand, the brightness difference between the transparent object and the opaque object in the same picture is enlarged, and the light and shade are relative, greatly enhancing the artistic effect of the picture.  

3. What should we pay attention to when using backlight photography?

First, backlight shooting should take the brightness of the shooting subject as the main metering light and do not be deceived by the large area of shadow light.  Such as shooting sunset and sunrise to the sun exposure for the correct exposure, and appropriate to reduce portrait exposure.  

Second, backlight portrait shooting should be with the help of a flash, mask for appropriate light shooting.  

Third, when shooting the silhouette, take the brightest part of the scene for the correct exposure.  

Fourth, when backlighting flowers, we should choose a dark background to contrast, to create a strong light contrast, strengthen the backlighting effect, to achieve a clear outline, highlighting the artistic effect of the subject.  

4. How to take backlight shots?

(1) Use a medium grey gradient mirror

When the contrast between the sky and the ground is too large, using a medium gray gradient mirror to reduce the brightness of the sky can be very useful.  Some people ask, couldn’t a mask be made in post-processing to darken the sky or brighten the ground?  You can, but you can’t adjust the layers that are missing. 

 If use medium grey gradual change lens to press dark sky to make the sky level can be retained, later have the sky of dark level again, the effect is just right.  Even on overcast days, using a medium grey gradient lens can create a surreal sky with overcast clouds.  For example, combining two gradient mirrors can darken the sky more intensely.  

This must mention is the sunrise shooting sharp tool – RGND reverse grey gradient mirror.  Unlike normal GND, reverse GND reduces light from the center of the filter to the top, making it ideal for sunrise and sunset shots.  The gradient part of R-GND is best for sunrise and sunset because of the low angle and high light of the sun.  

The usual medium grey gradient mirrors cannot control the low Angle of the sun, while the reverse gradient can balance the light ratio and preserve more color, layers, and detail in the foreground without creating a silhouette effect.  According to the gear commonly used are 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, and 1.2, 1.5.  

(2) Shake the black card

“Shake black card” is generally used in sunrise, sunset, and other upper and lower contrast scenes, at this time, if the sky is metering, the ground scenery must be underexposed, if the ground is metering, the sky will be overexposed.  

At this time, the role of shaking black card is the most obvious, but to find ways to reduce the shutter speed, for example, with the lowest sensitivity, a very small aperture, exposure according to the ground part, and then use the black card to block the sky part for shaking, shaking is to prevent the appearance of shaking black card traces, if fast too fast it is easy to leave black card traces.  

The light ratio is very large, to take a fishing lady statue but exposure, and around the deathless black photos, using the way to shake the black card for photography.  

TIPS: In actual shooting, black cards can be cardboard, plastic, black flannelette, and other hard materials. The worse the reflective ability of the surface, the more suitable it is. Black hats and gloves can even be used instead.  

(3) Surround exposure + late Hdr

HDR requires photos with different exposures, which can be done with surround exposures.  Take 3 or more photos of the scene with the surrounding exposure, and then import these photos of the same scene with different exposures into the special HDR processing software.

The system will generate work with more details according to the changes in exposure values.  By adjusting the contrast, saturation, brightness, etc., you can obtain the image effect that the conventional aperture shutter combination cannot take.  To use surround exposure, you need to find the BKT function on your camera. This button or option is surrounded by exposure (see your camera’s manual for details).  

This is indeed a very good solution, but there are limits, especially in the night and sea view, the leaves blowing wind, surrounded by exposure must be in a short period to get three or five pictures to deal with, but when the sunrise and sunset, slow door, the shutter has less than 1 second, surrounded by the exposure of displacement is poor,  Or the movement of the object on a windy day and so on.  

(4) Take the silhouette

In backlight photography, the large light ratio is sometimes an exposure problem, and you need to reduce the light ratio by every means.  Try taking a silhouette once in a while.  Generally, the darker main body outline is set off by a brighter background.  The image expression of the silhouette picture mainly depends on the outline of the image action.  Silhouettes are not good for detail and texture but have the power of simplicity and mystery. 

In general, the light and dark parts of the exposure difference of 4 degrees or more will appear silhouette.  In the actual shooting, when the Angle of the sun is low, the brightness of the backlight surface of many scenes decreases obviously. At this time, the silhouette can be successfully shot according to the exposure of the bright part in the sky.  

Backlight shooting is one of the more difficult shooting skills to master, only in the actual shooting more groping, more practice, often sum up experience, can master backlight shooting skills.