How do you expose a strongly backlit portrait while keeping subject detail and a bright halo?

Question

I’m trying to photograph subjects in strong backlight, similar to images with a glowing rim/halo from low sun behind the subject. My problem is balancing several things at once: keeping some detail in the subject, avoiding a completely blown background, and preserving the bright halo effect.

When I expose for the subject, the background often blows out badly. When I protect the highlights, the subject becomes too dark or turns into a silhouette. I’m shooting RAW.

Is this mainly about camera dynamic range, or are there practical shooting techniques—such as metering approach, time of day, fill light, or post-processing—that help achieve this look?

user1375 · Accepted Answer

The trick here has nothing to do with metering, and everything to do with timing and atmospheric conditions.

You want to shoot late in the day when the sun is very low in the sky, preferably when there is lots of haze. This gives you a good diffuse light from the hazy area to lift the shadows and a manageable amount of rim lighting from the sun itself.

If you try this mid morning or mid afternoon or with very clear skies the contrast between the highlight and shadows will be too great, no mater how you meter or expose the photo. Even if you have a very wide dynamic range camera, or shoot multiple exposures to blend you will still have problems with flare.

Much better to simply wait until the highlight and shadows balance themselves!

How do you expose a strongly backlit portrait while keeping subject detail and a bright halo?

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