A Simple Tip for Shooting Backlit

Following my post from yesterday (you can see it, here!), I thought I would share a few things I learned while shooting Joel’s portraits! In my opinion, the light was awesome, but because the sun was so low in the sky I came across a big challenge…

It was difficult to get Joel’s face in tack-sharp focus even when shooting at f/2.5 (which is more than narrow enough for one subject in my opinion!). I noticed that because I placed Joel with his back to the sun (backlit) the sun glares were beaming directly at my lens and creating a severe haze which made it difficult for my camera to autofocus.

So, I tried manually focusing. Some photographers are amazing at this and some are not… I am one of those who are NOT. I personally do not trust my eye as much as I trust the autofocus technology that professional cameras have nowadays! I gave it a go anyways, but still wasn’t getting the focus I wanted.

Autofocus wasn’t working and manual focus wasn’t working. I decided to put on my lens hood and give it another try. STILL I was not getting the result I wanted. The lens hood wasn’t able to crop out enough of the sun glare! I then tried using my hand to block out the sun, but my hand was getting in the frame and I didn’t want to have to crop every photo in Lightroom afterward!

I was adamant about having my subject backlit, I wanted the sun rays in my photo and I wanted my subject completely in focus. The sun wasn’t quite low enough for my subject to block it and it wasn’t quite high enough to where I could use my hand or lens hood as a shield. I decided I needed to take this photo in a 3-step process. Here’s what I did…

1. I positioned Joel where I wanted him and shielded the sun with my hand

2. I pressed my shutter release half way  down to autofocus Joel

3. I then put my hand down and fully pressed the shutter release

It WORKED! I was able to get a backlit, sunray filled image with my subject in focus!

It sounds simple and that’s because IT IS. All it took was a little trial and error until I found what worked. I will definitely be putting this trick in the bag for future sessions!

I hope this helps my fellow photographers out there experimenting with shooting backlit when the sun is low. Practice, experiment and find what works for you!

Love,

Hannah