How to Make a Photography Backlight

Ensure your subject is positioned in such a way she blocks the light source behind her, whether it is an artificial or natural source. Blocking the light prevents overexposure of the image, but it should still be sufficiently strong to provide a glowing halo. The halo effect will make your subject look more vibrant and will emphasize the distance between her and the background, adding an aesthetically pleasing depth of field to the image.

Place an artificial light in front of your subject if his face is underexposed. This light can be provided by a bulb, lamp, torch or any other artificial source. In this way, you will still achieve the halo effect caused by the backlighting, but your subject's face will be correctly exposed. However, avoid light that is too strong as it will overexpose your subject and nullify the backlighting.

Move the artificial lighting directly behind your subject if you don't have a natural source, such as the Sun. This source should be positioned level with your subject's head, so it can't be detected in the photos. Although natural light is preferable, the advantage of artificial lighting is that you can, in most cases, adjust it to suit your requirements. If you use a light that is too powerful, for instance, you can diffuse it by covering it with white paper or a thin piece of material.

Adjust your composition to avoid flare, which, along with overexposure, is likely to be your biggest obstacle. Flare is caused when strong light strikes the front element of the lens, causing unappealing highlights and soft focus, and is a particular problem with backlighting because you're shooting straight into a light source. However, by using a lens hood, searching for flare through your viewfinder -- where it can easily be seen -- and subtly shifting your composition accordingly, you should reduce or eliminate flare.

Set your camera to Manual mode, and expose for the Sun. This means you need to increase the exposure manually by at least one f stop (+1). This is because your camera, by evaluating the strong light available, will automatically dial down its exposure, which will, in turn, cause your subject to be underexposed. By setting your camera to overexpose, you are overriding this problem and can also use a flash to ensure your subject remains correctly exposed.