April 2025

29 Before we start, let’s talk about the fundamentals of this shot. Backlight tEchNiQUE Backlighting is a term to describe when the source of light is behind your subject. In this photo, the sun is pointing towards my camera. The model is standing in between the light source and my camera. This causes two important lighting effects... 1. There is a rimof light that wraps around themodel’s hair and body. Rim light is a type of backlighting that highlights the outlines of the subject. 2. There is light wrapping around the model’s face and body. Wrap-around light is soft and subtle. The light literally ‘wraps’ around the model giving consistent tones. This allows the skin to look soft and natural. How I got tHe sHot... Utilizing the backlight technique, I shot in RAW . Shooting in RAW means I will get more information throughout the image (more pixels per inch). It will especially be effective within the dark and light areas of the photo that may not be visible in the camera’s preview. These ‘hidden’ details were brought out during post. I took this shot during Golden Hour. In photography, the golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is orangy-red and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky. Photographers also call this time ‘magic hour.’ I chose a beautiful sunflower field as the yellow colors complement the orange glow during sunset. Keep in mind when photographing with backlight, your metering may be off. Why? Because based on the metering mode (let’s use matrix for this example), your camera will try to read and balance the dark and light areas of the entire scene to find the correct exposure. Because I photographed towards the sun, it created extreme bright areas around the model. At the same time, because the sun is directly behind the model, it also created extreme dark areas on her body. The balance to take a correctly exposed shot may be tricky but here is how I solve the puzzle... I ignored my metering and I took multiple shots at different shutter speeds until I found a balanced exposure that worked for my style. ConClusIon: Find a beautiful area and arrive shortly before sunrise or sunset. Place the sun behind the model, take multiple exposures until you find the right balance, and shoot in RAW. You will only have a short time for golden hour so arrive early to set up the scene. In this session, we only had 20 minutes of beautiful golden hour light to get this shot. “It’s not the camera. It’s the artist behind it.” - Rich Taylor Sun directly behind the model Rim & wrap around light on the model Photographer facing light