The Beauty of Backlighting in Landscape Photos: Tips and Tricks

There are a multitude of types of light in landscape photography, and depending on how you're trying to feature your subject and the mood you're trying to convey, each can have its place. This great video will show you the beauty of backlighting and give you some helpful tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.

Coming to you from Adam Gibbs, this helpful video will show you why backlighting can be such a great thing in landscape photography and how to get around some of the unique challenge it presents. While it can provide a unique light that renders a scene in an elegant manner, the problem with backlighting is that you're putting the sun very close to or within the frame, and this can introduce lots of problems like loss of contrast and flare. As Gibbs discusses, there are a few clever ways around these issues. Also, if you're working with the sun in frame at longer focal lengths, be very careful: the higher magnification can permanently damage your eyes if you look through the optical viewfinder of a DSLR and can also damage your sensor. Use live view on a DSLR to protect your eyes and avoid keeping the sun in frame for very long. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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