How can I make the subject not black by taking a backlight photo?

How can I make the subject not black by taking a backlight photo? When taking photos with backlight, the subject is easy to blacken under high light ratio. If you increase the exposure, the subject will become brighter, but the picture will be partially overexposed. So, how can we make the subject not black?

1, the "time" of backlight shooting.

The so-called "sky" of backlight shooting, that is, the low-angle sun is more suitable as the backlight, that is, it is more conducive to backlight shooting in the morning and dusk. Although it is equally dazzling, it is much weaker than the backlight at noon in temperature and intensity. At the same time, the "contrast between light and shade" created by the "oblique angle" makes the picture more stereoscopic and layered.

▲ Oblique light adds a shadow to the picture, making the picture more stereoscopic and layered.

In addition, the light in this period is golden, which will produce a beautiful golden halo around the main body. All these invisibly weaken the darkening of the subject brought by backlight, but shoot another kind of aesthetic feeling.

▲ Backlight shooting produces contour light, and the halo effect increases the beauty of the picture.

Step 2 "weaken" strong light

If the "backlight" is too strong when shooting, we can block the direct backlight, and we can use leaves, buildings and even the girl's body, such as the head and shoulders, to block part of the direct light and "weaken" the strong light.

▲ Use the trunk to block the sun and adjust the exposure brightness of the subject.

▲ Block some direct light and shoot the sun star with a small aperture.

In addition to shading, you can also adjust the lighting angle, and change the "positive backlight" into "side backlight" to reduce the influence brought by the backlight. The picture taken under the side backlight is bright and clear, and it is full of three-dimensional sense.

▲ Side backlight is very helpful for shaping the layering of the picture and the three-dimensional sense of the object.

▲ Under the side backlight, the lines of trees are beautifully outlined!

3. Cleverly use the foreground to "brighten" the subject.

When shooting portraits in backlight, the "reflector" is often used to fill the main body of the figure, which can avoid the blackening of the face caused by backlight. When shooting, you can use the same method, just look for the natural "reflector" from the environment-that is, the "foreground" that can reflect light, such as snow, water, mirrors, etc. to brighten the subject.

▲ With the help of the reflection of white snow, the brightness of the main body of the character is brightened. In addition, silhouette light in backlight, hair and light snow in the sky can increase the sense of fantasy.

As long as we make good use of the light to illuminate the foreground and form a moderate reflective picture, as a "natural reflector", we can make the originally dark subject bright from local exposure to the picture.

4. Surround exposure+post HDR

HDR requires photos with different exposures, which can be solved by surrounding exposures. Take three or more scene photos with bracketing exposure, and then import these photos of the same scene with different exposures into special HDR processing software (I mostly use PS), and the system will generate a work with more details according to the changes in exposure value. By adjusting contrast, saturation, brightness, etc. , we can get the image effect that the conventional aperture shutter combination can't shoot. If you want to use bracketing exposure, you need to find the BKT function on the camera. This button or option is bracketing exposure (see the camera manual for details).

▲ Surround exposure+post-HDR shooting

This is indeed a good solution, but it has limitations, especially at night and sea view, when the leaves are windy, three or five photos must be taken in a short time to deal with the surrounding exposure, but when the sun rises and sets and the door closes slowly, the shutter is lower than 1 s, so it has nothing to do with the displacement difference caused by the surrounding exposure or the movement of the target object when the wind is strong.

Of course, when the contrast between the sky and the ground is too large, it is also very useful to use medium gray gradient mirror, anti-medium gray gradient mirror and black card to reduce the brightness of the sky.

▲ Nyquist ND 1000 and three-speed medium gray gradient lens are added for shooting.

▲ Shooting with a card color 170mm glass six-speed grey mirror and a 0.9 anti-gradient lens.

▲ The light ratio is very large. It is necessary to take a photo of the unexposed statue of the fisherman, but the surrounding photos are not black, so take it with a black card.

5. The backlight is "transparent"

Although they are all shot against the light, some subjects do not turn black under strong light because of their "transparent physique", but show another "transparent" effect. It is common to shoot various flowers and plants. Backlight penetrates through leaves and petals, and clear veins or petals are faintly visible, which makes the subject feel more transparent and the picture is full of sunshine.

▲ Warm sunshine is sprinkled on the grass, and the dew on the grass tip is crystal clear, shining in the backlight, reflecting the texture of light.

A dark background can enhance the light ratio and highlight the outline and texture of leaves, while if a bright background is used, the picture can be clean and bright.

▲ The dark background highlights the outline and texture of the blade.

▲ The bright background makes the picture clean and bright.

Under such lighting conditions, the internal metering system of the camera often can't accurately measure the exposure value, which easily leads to underexposure. To show the details such as the outline and texture of the subject, it is necessary to expose it very accurately, and spot metering is commonly used.

6. Backlight shooting silhouette

When shooting in reverse light, the large light ratio is sometimes a difficult exposure problem, so you need to do everything possible to reduce the light ratio and try to shoot a silhouette occasionally. Quickly draw the outline of the main body, the picture is concise and bright, the contrast between light and shade is bright, it has immeasurable visual appeal, and it combines drama, mystery and interest.

▲ In silhouette shooting, the outline should be clear because the details have disappeared.

▲ Use the water surface as a light source to create a silhouette.

Please refer to how to take wonderful and creative silhouette photos with your mobile phone. Actually, it's not that difficult

Finally, it is to use the later "rescue". Because of the instantaneity of photography, some scenes have no chance to be retaken, but the main body of the picture is too dark because of the backlight. Unfortunately, we can save a piece of waste backlight film by later brightening, contrast, improving definition and HDR.

▲ Save the backlight waste film later.

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