How to Take Perfect Back-Lit Photos

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Hi! I’m Lauren with Lauren Weeks Photography and today I’ll be showing you how I shoot my subject with light behind them – also known as a backlit picture. These are my favorite types of photos because I think shooting a backlit image is what makes the light look romantic and dreamy.   So here goes!

The main thing to keep in mind here is to expose for your subject. If you have a properly exposed subject, you have a beautiful backlit photo, and this is how I do it:

1- I almost always have my camera set on spot metering. What’s the difference? Spot metering basically exposes for the area you focus your camera on (the subject) and only that area. This is different than the matrix metering that takes the whole image in your viewfinder into account when exposing the image. I find that doing this always guarantees that my subject is properly exposed.

2- I make sure my ISO is exposed for the subject only. For example, if I have my subject in front of the light and everything around her is bright, but she is lighting darker, I make sure that I bump up my ISO a bit so that I will get a clearer shot of her.

To Understand more about ISO: Tutorial on ISO

A 5 Minute Crash Course to Learn your DSLR Camera

3-  I play around with my aperature and shutterspeed. Most of the time I need to shoot wide open to let more light in. Other times I need to open my aperture AND slow my shutter speed to let a TON of more light in. It really just depends on how harsh the light is and who my subject is. If it’s a child who is not going to sit still, slowing down my shutter speed will not be an option. In this case I will usually shoot wide open and then lighten as needed in post processing. (And speaking of post-processing, I know you’re shooting in RAW because of the amazing amount of changes you can make to your image when post-processing, right?? RIGHT?!)

4- I also love to play with different angles. Depending on where my subject is in relation to the light source will depend on what settings I use in camera. Different angles can add a romantic or more dramatic look that can change the feel or emotion of any image.

The following are examples of some of my backlit photos. All images were shot with my Nikon 700 and Nikon 50mm 1.4 prime lens.

You might also like: How to Rock Your Shot with Lens Flare

ISO 360, 1.4, 1/800

ISO 1000, 2.2, 1/1250

ISO 900, 3.2, 1/200

ISO 200, 3.5, 1/100

Guest Blogger: Lauren Weeks Photography

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Lauren Weeks Photography offers wedding and on-location portrait photography in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Marine wife, mommy, and lover of coffee and dark chocolate.

(Headshot is courtesy of Andrea Hauck Photography)