Photography

If you are a photographer or simply someone interested in photography, you are likely very familiar with front-lighting subjects. It’s the most common way to photograph things, including wildlife. But for dramatic, sometimes visually stunning photos, backlighting is the way to go.
Backlighting a photo is exactly what it sounds like: you frame your subject with the light behind them and photograph into the light. It can be tricky to get right. If you’re using AF to find your focal points, your camera may struggle to find a focus point on the darker subject and may instead grab the brighter parts of the background. A little bit of practice makes finding your focus much easier when shooting quickly in the field.

In this photo, the sky above Ranthambore Fort was heavily laden with smoke. It caught the gold of the sunset and amplified it. The small kisses of light on the langur’s face and arm give nice depth the darker aspects of the photo.

Placing a backlit subject against a darker background will really make the subject stand out. It adds beautiful contrast and naturally draws the eye to the bits of light outlining subject.

When you can photograph animals with a nice fur pattern in backlight it creates a beautiful halo effect and gives an interesting texture to the subject.

This image isn’t strongly backlit, but it does have the classic rim of lighting along the subject that makes it stand out against the background. Many backlit images will fade to darkness in a gradient from the point of the most sunlight.

This beautiful rhino cow was heavily pregnant. She laid down at the edge of the water and started blowing bubbles. Being able to reach down from the guide truck allowed me to get a lower perspective and made this photo much more interesting than it might otherwise have been.

Backlighting wildlife can be tricky. But, with practice, this technique can add interesting and diverse images to your portfolio.