Capturing the Magic of Summer

by Kelly

The month of June plays host to the summer solstice and the longest days of the year.  And as photographers, that means more daylight hours for enjoying all that summer goodness.  One of my favorite ways of capturing the magic of summer is by shooting with backlight.

It can be a bit tricky though, so today I thought I might share with you a couple of examples of how I manage my camera settings to help me achieve the look I'm going for.

As the name suggests, backlighting means shooting in the general direction of the light source - in the examples I will share with you today, that would be the sun.  The light source is behind the subject so there is a considerable amount of light coming in to the camera's sensor.  And therefore the camera's 'correct' exposure will often read a little dark.

Here is SOOC shot I took of my lavender blooms in the morning sun.

My camera was set to use 'Evaluative Metering' which reads all the light from the entire frame and adjusts the exposure accordingly.  This shot is what the camera thinks is the 'correct' exposure...and to be honest, I'm not really all that unhappy with it.  In fact I quite like the delicate rim light around the individual lavender petals.

But this shot doesn't convey my delight with seeing the sun this morning for the first time in days.  It was so light and bright and I wanted my photo to reflect that.  So I overexposed my shot by two stops with the following results.

Now this is more like what I saw in my mind's eye....soft and dreamy.  Bright and airy.  This shot more accurately reflects how the morning felt to me.  And so this is the shot I chose to use.

So the next thing I did was open the Develop Module in Lightroom to give it a few subtle tweaks.

I reduced the highlights and boosted the presence a slight bit.  Then I played with the tone curve to give it a nice matte finish.  Then as a final touch I sharpened it slightly and added a bit of a vignette. Here's the final image.

Of course, keep in mind that there is not 'right' or 'wrong' exposure....the question to ask is, does this shot tell the story that you are trying to tell.  So let your heart lead you and then adjust your camera accordingly.

We are so excited to see your wonderful Golden Hour goodness this month.  Share with us all your magic moments in our Flickr pool or on Instagram with the hashtag #focusingonlife.

Until next time,

Kelly