Creating beautiful naturally lit portraits is how a large part of professional photographers make their living. I am going to expose one of their favorite techniques for taking potentially breathtaking portraits. I say “potentially” because this does take a little practice, and it can go horribly wrong when it is done incorrectly. But when it is done right (and I am giving you the way to do it right) you will be able to take beautiful portraits of your children and family whenever you want to.
Equipment:
- DSLR would be great but you can even get beautiful backlit portraits with an iPhone if you know what you are doing.
- Optional - Lens shade for your camera lens (DSLR)
- Optional – A collapsable light reflector
- Sunrise – 8:30am (for the early risers)
- Early evening – Sunset. This can vary depending on the season. Figure out when the sun sets and subtract 3 hours from it and you have a time frame. (EX – If the sun sets at 8pm then you can start at around 5pm.) I know pros will disagree with me here. Most will say to stick with the magic hour (hour before sunset and after sunrise), but I do believe you can get great backlit photos at other times as well.
2. The lower the sun is in the sky the more dramatic the back-light.
- The trade off is that you have less light on the front of your subject. There are a few ways around this. You can angle your subject so that most of the light is hitting their back, while a little is hitting their face. Another way of getting some light back on the front of the subject is by using a reflector to bounce some light back onto your subject’s face.
3. Lens shade vs no lens shade.
- What’s the difference? It’s all about light control. Depending on where the sun is in relation to you (& your camera) using a lens shade can produce a completely different look than without one. And the cool thing is that both looks can be amazing.
- With a lens shade the sun light will only be hitting your subject and will help shield the light from entering the lens. This gives you a cleaner crisper photo.
- Without a lens shade the sun light can spill into the camera creating sun flares and a sun haze. When done well, these can be beautiful stylistic effects.
With no lens cover the sun enters the lens giving that "sun drenched" look to the photo.
- The background is just as important as your subject. Something that can ruin a beautifully lit subject is a background that has a big white sky.
- Position yourself and your subject so that your background will hold the viewers interest. There are several ways to do that.
- Change your angle – shooting at a downward angle can help keep less of the sky out of the photo.
- Your lens choice can help – Using a telephoto rather than a wide angle to help keep the sky out of the photo.
- If you do choose to have the sky be a part of the image you have some options for keeping the sky interesting, and not just some white nothingness.
- composite two photos together in Photoshop to create something unique
- use a reflector to help bounce light onto the front of your subject
- create a silhouette image of your subject
- use a flash (preferably off camera) to help illuminate the front of your subject. This one is a little more advanced.
An example of a photo composite in Photoshop. The before photo on the left has a lifeless background. Adding a sky on the right may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it can add some visual interest to a photo.
