Lights, Shadows and Backlight 

By Peter Thoeny, one of our Digital Photo Academy instructors in San Francisco.

Ask, how can lights and shadows make a scene more vibrant? 

Ask, how can backlight make a scene more interesting?

Example: Shadow produced by full moon; at Hawk Hill, Marin Headlands, north of San Francisco, California

Example: Sun behind the model’s head; wildflowers at Carrizo Plain National Monument, California

Example: Light shaft at Upper Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona

Example: Interesting light with rain, clouds, sunlit areas; Schuders, Swiss Alps

Example: Compare to daytime in Schuders, Swiss Alps; no special light

Example: Left: backlight shot of tree in autumn, casting shadows, in Cupertino, California. Right: Alley with arch, father and son in backlight, in Varese, Italy

   Example: Sunset with backlight, at ZD Wines, Silverado Trail, Napa, California

Example: Backlight shot, natural halo around the person; person is oblivious to historical artifacts around him; Narai-juku (奈良井宿), a historical town from the Edo period was the thirty-fourth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, located in the Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Example: Approaching Zurich Airport near sundown, overcast with steam tower of a nuclear    power plant

Example: Ideal condition: overcast above, clear in west where sun is setting; at Mt. Hamilton above Silicon Valley, California

Example: Sunset with nice play of lights and shadows; above resort town Bad Ragaz, Switzerland

Example: Backlight shot near sunset, Coalinga, California

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography, http://bit.ly/qualityHDR

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