I’m a little behind in posting this week’s photo, although I took it on time. From the assignment thread:
What is backlight? Fundamentally, this refers to having the light source behind your subject. More technically speaking: This is a controlled technique, intended to produce depth or separation of subject and background.
Yup: That means we’re shooting towards the light source. Long-held wisdom for photographers was that you kept the light to *your* back (behind you, the photographer). This flooded the subject with light. But, let’s think about this a little bit (advance apologies to everybody currently involved in deep winter). Let’s pretend to be the subject: What happens when you go outside in full, midday, bright light, and look toward the sun? Squinting, harsh shadows in all the wrong places, etc. Now, let’s turn around and imagine that sun on our back (again, we’re the subject…the person having our picture taken). How do you feel? What do you envision/imagine? Warmth? Depth? That’s what we’re shooting for.
We had a beautiful day last weekend, and it was a pleasure to get out and play in the backyard during the golden hour.
