Back Light - How to Use it

An image with Back Light can look magical. It glows, shows edges, insides of plants and creatures and much more. However it is often difficult to get the right exposure.

 Expose for the Subject. Firstly, you need to get the light meter in your camera to ignore the strong sun and expose for the subject. You can do this by using Spot Exposure or some cameras now have a setting for Partial (Strong Back Light). If you use either of these two settings, make sure you reset it back to Centre Weighted or Matrix (Evaluative)

Then you have to decide whether to make it lighter or darker for purely visual reasons. Use the +/- button if you are using Aperture or Shutter Speed Priority or if you are using Manual Exposure, use your light meter gauge to the + side or - side.

Stopping flare is also a problem (unless you think it looks atmospheric). This is caused by the sun hitting the surface of the lens. You can hide the sun behind a tree trunk or if you are shooting small objects you will need to shade your lens. This will bring back the contrast to the image.

The sun in your eyes is another problem you can encounter. The back screen can also be almost impossible to see let alone take any photos!  You and the screen need to be shaded by anything you can think of. This is where a long suffering companion is useful to hold some shade over your face & camera.

Try several exposures. Some will look better lighter as long as you can see detail, but many will look better somewhat underexposed to show rich tones and detail in the translucent sections.

Enjoy experimenting!