Photography light is very essential, either natural or artificial photo lighting; both must be controlled to get an optimal photo lighting condition to produce good photographs. Without photography light; the photography will not be possible.

Artificial photo lightings are easy to control because they are designed to supply the photography light. But the photography light from the nature must be tricked to produce superior photographs. See also the photography lighting technique.

There are conditions where the range of the photography light received by the camera exceeds the dynamic range of the camera sensor; which is 4EV. With this condition you have to determine which part of the object will become the main point of interest and then you need to control the camera exposure to allow the camera to read this extreme exposure based on the main object. See also the composition rules of thirds.

Backlighting

Photography light that comes from behind the object towards the camera is called the Backlight. Backlight will evoke a shadow or silhouette for the subject that faces the camera. It is not possible for the camera to cover this extreme range for both detail of the subject and the bright background behind the subject. In this situation you have to make up your mind correctly whether you would like to evoke a silhouette for the object at the foreground; or to achieve detail of the subject with the consequence of over exposure at the background.

Exposure Index

There are some techniques in dealing with this type of photography light (backlight), the techniques depend on the photographer decision what style would be preferred. Assuming that photo lighting tools are not used (lighting techniques will be discussed on separate section) there are couple of options to select. Firstly; by focusing to the object detail that means allowing the background to become very bright white.

In the above backlight photo; decision was made to achieve detail of the couple as the main subject with the consequence of bright area on the background that creates an over-exposure (OE) photo.

Secondly; to deal with the photography light from background (the backlight), decision was made to evoke silhouette on the subject by allowing detail for the background. This situation is commonly applied to sunset or sunrise landscape. In the sunset or sunrise situation; the silhouette on the subject will evoke a dramatic landscape view. You can put a couple of people or more on the foreground as your silhouette models. The photo below was made by Yoyon with the miner girls as the models in the middle of Borneo jungle.

Backlight can be beautiful for silhouette photos

Another trick to accommodate the backlight is by positioning the object in close-up by blocking the backlight.

I used my Canon zoom lens EF 70-200 f/4 IS to take this picture with +1/3 EV compensation. Detail of the close up can be achieved by allowing the backlight spring upon the hair that evokes a golden light effect. The long focal length and f/4 aperture also contributes detail of the subject with a blurred background (Bokeh).

Golden light in the morning

You can play some experiments with this type of photography light – the golden light; the sun light in the morning around 7 am; as the backlight of your subjects. In the photo below; the orchid was selected as the subject with the golden light as the photo lighting. Arrange your shooting position to get a very low shooting angle in the same height as the orchid. Be aware to prevent the light reaching your lens that will result a flare to your photo.

Orchid with golden light

Side Lighting

When the photography light comes from the left side or the right side of the subject; that’ll be easier to trick since the contrast value tends to be lower. However, the trailing shadow can influence your camera metering system. See also the problems with the photo background.

Strong shadow can cause Over exposure photo

Non DSLR camera tends to choose the shadow instead of the light to measure the camera exposure. This situation tends to produce an overexposure result since the camera tends to increase the exposure when reading the dark area. The shadow area will become grey and brighter; looks unnatural shadow.

If you want to explore the rich color and the textural quality of the subject when the photography light comes from the side (side lighting situation), you need to compensate the exposure around -1/3 EV to compensate the shadow area.

Spot Lighting

Besides the above photo lighting types, another photography light you need to know is the Spot lighting. Capturing the subject in spot lighting situation is similar to capturing the subject with large area of the dark background. The camera tends to compensate the dark area with the result of overexposure to the main object that receives the photography light.

Use spot metering to expose spot lighting

What you need to consider is metering selection; intrinsic subject and the dark background area. You can select spot metering on the subject that receives spotlight. Spot metering only takes small area in the center of the frame that the camera reads to measure the exposure. The level of intrinsic brightness of the subject will also influence the way the camera measure the exposure; so will the background. Read more detail about tricking the camera exposure and background issue.

See also:

• Composition photography techniques
• Night photography technique
• Digital SLR camera lenses
• Terminologies you need know about DSLR Lenses