How to Use the Sun to Backlight Portraits

One of the most classic and timeless portrait looks involves using the sun to backlight your subject and create a dramatic background. It is also an excellent way to develop your lighting skills and to learn how to balance ambient and artificial light, and this awesome video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to create them yourself. 

Coming to you from Ashley Boring with Westcott Lightning, this great video tutorial will show you how to create backlit portraits. Even if this sort of look is not one you would personally use, it is a really beneficial way to improve your lighting skills by learning how to balance ambient and artificial light. Because you will often have a bright sky behind your subject in these situations, you have to expose for the sky in order to avoid blowing out the highlights. As a consequence, this will underexpose your subject. Adding some artificial light on your subject can bring the exposure back into balance and will give you better image quality than you would get if you just pulled up the shadows in post, even . Check out the video above for the full rundown from Boring.

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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