Looking up at sunlight filtering through trees
Lens-Artists,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries

Gallery: backlighting to add drama and atmosphere

May 4, 2023 / 31 Comments

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.

George Eastman

Yes, lighting is everything in photography. It can make an ordinary subject look intriguing, while the lack of it can make an interesting one look dull.

Light that falls on your subject from the front will make it look flat and two dimensional. Side lighting is more interesting, creating shadows and bringing out textures. The last option is backlighting, something that the most basic photography manuals may tell you to avoid. Don’t shoot into the sun, they say. Rubbish, backlighting can be beautiful and dramatic, if done with care and on the right subjects.

It creates silhouettes and emphasises transparency and translucence, whether a richly coloured stained window or the delicate petal of a flower. It can form halos or bokeh patterns around your subject. And can you imagine a sunrise or sunset without backlighting? Of course not!

For Ann-Christine’s Lens-Artists challenge this week I’ve searched out some examples that I think illustrate this technique. Most are from my archives while a couple are from our recent trip to Tirana. I’ve tried to avoid sunsets and silhouettes, as I’ve shared so many in the past. Please click on any photo to open a slideshow of each gallery, with captions.

Plants

I love to photograph flowers with the sun behind them, the backlighting bringing out the detail of veins in the petals. Trees and leaves look great like this too, and even mosses.

Large red flower on a long stem with sun shining through the petals
Petals of a red flower backlit to show the veins
Red tulip against a black background
White flower head
Back-lit orange flower head
Backlit orange and green leaves
Stone wall with backlit moss

Photographing the tracks through Bardia National Park in Nepal, beautifully backlit in the early morning sunshine, kept me occupied while waiting for the elusive tigers to (not) appear. Terri has asked to see paths and roads for this week’s Sunday Stills; I hope these tracks, being somewhere between a path and a road, will fit the bill. My feature photo was also taken here, but looking up at the trees.

Path with a small deer and sunlight filtering through trees
Path with sunlight filtering through trees
Path with sunlight filtering through trees
Water

Backlighting works well for fountains. You can really show off the sparkling water as the sun shines through it. The same is true of naturally occurring ‘fountain’s’, such as those produced by the elephants enjoying their bath time below. Backlighting also creates beautifully glinting water as a backdrop to silhouettes.

Hand of a sculpture surrounded by drops of water
Metal figure of a girl with splashing water
Elephants in a river at sunset
Two men silhouetted against a sparkling sea
Sun shining through steam from a geyser
Glass

Light streaming through a stained-glass window is an obvious winner when it comes to backlighting, but any coloured glass can be effective, as can clear glass holding a coloured liquid. Anyone for a beer?!

Light through a stained glass window falling on the floor
Light streaming through modern stained glass window
Traditional stained glass with light shining on to old stone frame
Small glass with dark coffee
Beer bottle and glass of beer on a table with river beyond
Buildings

Shooting into the sun can make it harder to pick out the details of any structure but the silhouette effect emphasises the form of a building. It can also add drama, as in the shot of Pyongyang’s Juche Tower below.

Stupa with prayer flags and pigeons flying above
Tall tower and statues with sun flare behind
Small ornate domed building at sunset
Sun shining above a solid adobe wall

I’ll finish with three very different images that didn’t fit any of my chosen categories but which I couldn’t resist including, even though two, I think, have been shared before!

Bike leaning against a tree in strong sunlight
Bike parked in the Place Saint Sulpice, Paris
Large dramatic rock with sun behind
The Devil’s Tower, Wyoming
Bare trees against a sunset sky
Walpole Park in winter, Ealing

31 Comments

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