How To Master Backlit Wedding Photography
One of my all-time favorite venue attributes is big, beautiful windows. The kind of windows that stop you in your tracks and make you grab your camera because they are just as photo-worthy as the view outside of them. As a light and airy wedding photographer, I love to place the bride and groom in front of giant windows for a super bright and clean look. Unfortunately, it's not that simple of a process. Direct backlighting can lead to some serious haze around your clients! In the shadows, you’ll lose so many important details of the subject. Plus, they’ll be super dark in comparison to the bright windows behind them and your colors and edges can get muddy as you try to edit the photos.
I’m sure you’re thinking, “Okay, Savanna! So what is the secret to gorgeous backlit wedding photos?!”
I’ll tell you. The secret is flash!
Backlight can be magical. But the sad fact is that when the light is behind you, the shadows are in front of you. Without a flash, your faces and details will be lost in the dark! Flash can be used to brighten the inside of the room so that it is just barely darker than the light coming through the window behind your couple. If the flash is brighter than the window light you’ll start to see through the windows which can be distracting. For pure white windows as your background, make sure that the flash power is just a touch darker than the window light.
Now that you’ve got your flash adjusted, it's time to use a modifier. A modifier on your flash will soften its quality and help it to look natural. In a smaller room such as a bridal suite, I have found that an on-camera flash can be pointed behind me at the ceiling, and that helps. However, an umbrella creates much softer and more dimensional results in comparison. My favorite modifier for off-camera flashes is a giant umbrella like this one (60 inches). The larger the umbrella, the more it’ll spread and the softer it’ll be. A modifier like this helps spread the light around the room and wrap it around your couple’s faces for a soft and flattering look.
In certain situations, I will use more than one umbrella modifier to perfect the backlit look. If the windows are big enough, one flash won’t cover it! Setting up two large umbrellas on either side of the subject, however, will fill in the shadows just fine.
Using flash in backlight situations takes some practice. You will need to play with different settings and modifiers to find what feels right to you! But when you find your perfect setup, you will find that the creative possibilities are endless. From getting ready with the bridesmaids to capturing the ceremony, your backlit photos will be lighter, and airier, and the colors will be truer to life.