Front Yard Holly (and more) - Backlighting tips
Have you ever tried using a pane of ordinary plate window glass for backlighting reflections? I have found this to work exceptionally well especially under sunlight as the spectrum of light being reflected is the exact same as that of the sunlight - just less intense, plus you can also produce backlighted shadows in almost any direction desired depending upon how you orient your plate glass with respect to the light source as well as the subject being backlit for your photograph. However as you have done above a good sheet of white paper can create a diffused source of backlighting close to the spectrum of light being reflected depending upon the composition/colour of the paper as there are many, many slightly different shades of white. As for using the camera's flash for backlighting, the backlighting flash has a very different spectrum of light than most other light sources including sunlight. Just thought I would clue you in on a tip I learned through experimentation as well as by accident over the years.
Thanks for the tip on backlighting. I never thought of using glass, and it makes sense that it would keep the colors right. Also, your comment about the shades of white has me thinking. I have a piece of paper I keep in my backpack for white-balance test shots. Back at the computer, I balance the white on the test-shot picture, and then apply the balance to other shots taken in the same place that don't have the white in them. I just use the whitest paper I could find, but maybe I need to be more careful, because sometimes the method does not work and yields wierd colors. Also, it makes sense that the fill flash would have a different white than the ambient light. Thanks for sharing that. I never thought of that either.
Ok if we use this as start of a forum on lighting?
