How I Shot This: Backlighting

If you have followed my blog for a while you'll have heard me harp on about backlighting and how much I love it, so I thought I'd dedicate a whole blog post to explaining why.

Ansel Adams said "a good photograph is knowing where to stand" and these words are so true! Where I position my subjects and myself in relation to the light (generally the sun) makes all the difference to the final photograph. And I almost always choose to have the sun behind my subjects rather than in front of them. I like shooting this way for many reasons but largely because it's part of my style - I love bright, timeless portraits that are well composed and correctly exposed. I love to shoot with natural light predominantly and to have clean, crisp portraits with creamy backgrounds.

See in the photograph on the left (a behind-the-scenes shot of one of my assistant shooters 😜) how the light is harsh and speckled, but yet in the exact same spot of the garden by turning around and shooting back towards the sun my bride & groom aren't squinting, the light is even and their skin isn't speckled. 

Here's another example of how just changing where you stand can make all the difference. In this spot the sun is to the left, it's casting shadows across my couple & creating hot spots on her dress.

By changing where I stand and putting the sun behind my couple, we get this dreamy gorgeous light and my couple no longer have shadows or harsh sun spots on them.

Another example. Gemma & Marty had their first look around midday and it was a brilliantly sunny Glenorchy day!

By quickly changing where I stand we get this instead.

On a portrait shoot or a wedding day I am constantly assessing the light and looking to use the light to my advantage, mindful that I want to create portraits representative of my style. I'm incredibly lucky to have awesome clients that trust my vision 100%. And sometimes the most unassuming spots make for incredible locations when the light is just right.