Put the sun behind your subject and you get two very different results. If you expose for the subject, the background blows out and the subject is dark. If you expose for the background, the subject becomes a silhouette. Backlighting is light coming from behind the subject, toward the camera, and it is one of the most dramatic and difficult lighting situations in photography.

Backlighting works because it separates the subject from the background. It creates a rim of light around hair, leaves, or fabric. It can produce a soft halo when the light source is partly obscured, or a strong silhouette when the subject is underexposed deliberately. Portrait photographers use backlighting for glow. Landscape photographers use it for sunbursts through trees. Sports and wildlife photographers use it for action shots with rim light. The challenge is metering. Cameras average the scene, so they often underexpose the subject. Spot metering or exposure compensation helps. Fill flash can lift the shadows.

Ways to use backlighting

• Rim light. Highlights the edges of a subject.
• Silhouette. Subject rendered as a dark shape.
• Halo. Soft glow around a subject.
• Sunburst. Light flaring through a small opening.

Backlighting is not a mistake. It is a choice. The mistake is letting the camera decide the exposure for you.