How to create a clean backlit portrait

Lead: I believe that people who play photography have seen many tutorials on backlighting. In this issue, I will share with you the techniques of backlighting and teach you to shoot portraits with pure pictures indoors and outdoors.

First, the time for shooting against the light

Kunming is a good place, and it is possible to shoot against the light for 28 days a year. The favorite shooting seasons are winter and spring. In winter, the light is soft and the transparency is good, and the films made have warm colors. The outdoor shooting of backlight started one hour before sunset, and the best films were shot at this time. In the afternoon, the light can also shoot backlight, but the light was still hard at that time. The indoor backlight time is different, because it is dark indoors, and it is usually taken at noon when the light is strongest, which can cause obvious backlight contrast indoors.

outdoor backlight when the sun goes down

Second, the parameter setting of backlight shooting

The most important setting is manual exposure, because the light contrast is too large, and re-composition is often used, so neither aperture priority nor shutter priority is reliable. The best way is manual exposure, which is the advantage of the digital age. Usually, I take aperture as the basis. Take a photo, then play it back, and increase or decrease the shutter according to the exposure of this photo, which can completely ensure that the photo you take is the effect you need. Of course, if it is film, you can only rely on experience.

In addition, the white balance is automatic, and there is no drift. The focus must be set to single focus, which is convenient for composition. Everything else is the default setting.

Three or two tips to solve the problem of difficult focusing with large aperture

Backlight affects focusing very much, so it is difficult for many large aperture lenses to focus when shooting. Here are two small methods for their own use:

1. Hold the light with your hand, and let go of your hand when the focus is on the face;

2. Let people's faces block the light first, and then make a composition to let the light out after focusing.

I usually use the second method when shooting, because the degree of backlight can be well controlled by re-composition, and the desired effect can be achieved. A little attention is the manual exposure mentioned before, because the light ratio is very large, and exposure deviation is likely to occur in other exposure methods.

This one focuses on the face first, and then re-composes.