If you've read any photography tutorials about portrait photography before, you know that golden hour is the ideal time of day for most portraits.
With its soft, warm light, golden hour provides you an opportunity to do all sorts of things with your portraits, from nice, even lighting for headshots to beautiful backlighting for half-body and full-body shots, and everything in between.
In the video above, Jessica Kobeissi shares a few top tips on how to take portraits at golden hour, more specifically, beautiful backlit portraits.
These are simple, straightforward tips, but they can have a profound impact on the quality of your photos!
How to Take Portraits at Golden Hour: Position the Model
Clearly, to backlight a portrait you need the sun to be directly behind the model.
That means that your first step in creating a backlit portrait is to position the model such that the sun is directly behind them.
This allows the soft, warm light of golden hour to illuminate the model - particularly their hair - in a way that makes the shot warm and glowing, as seen above.
Notice how the sun is completely masked by the model's body. This is important because it prevents sun streaks from appearing in the shot.
Editor's Tip: See what your backlit portraits would look like as a fine art canvas print.
Camera Settings for Backlit Portraits
The camera settings you use for your portraits will vary depending on a variety of factors, not the least of which is the amount of available light.
In the video, Jessica notes that she begins with an aperture of f/2, a shutter speed of 1/6400 seconds, and ISO 250.
In breaking down these camera settings, you can see that they're dialed in as such because of the abundance of light.
Not only is there a lot of light in the scene, but shooting with such a large aperture allows tons of light into the lens.
As a result, Jessica can minimize the ISO and speed up the shutter and still get a well-exposed photo.
If you aren't quite comfortable shooting in manual mode like she does, try shooting in aperture priority mode.
Doing so gives you control over the aperture and ISO while the camera controls the shutter speed.
That gives you a little "backup" with the camera settings so you don't have to worry yourself about manipulating all three.
In fact, if you set the ISO at 100 or 200 and keep it there, all you really need to worry about in most situations is the aperture.
Notice that in the image above, Jessica opened the aperture a little to f/1.8 to brighten the shot even more.
Learn More:
- Best Camera Settings for Portrait Photography
- Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO: The Exposure Triangle Explained
Use Manual Focus if the Sun is in the Shot
If you want the sun in the shot, as was done in the image above, you will likely need to switch your lens to manual focus.
The reason for this is because your camera's autofocus system might have difficulty acquiring focus or keeping focus on the model.
Switching to manual focus is easy - simply move the switch on the lens barrel from AF to MF.
Then, using live view, frame up the shot and zoom in on the model. Adjust the focus ring until the model is in sharp focus.
Lastly, press the shutter button to take the shot, zoom in on the image to check the focus again, and, if needed, make adjustments and take an additional photo.
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Final Thoughts
Taking gorgeous backlit portraits like those seen throughout this article might seem difficult at first.
But as with so many things in photography, mastering a new skill simply takes time, practice, and a few portrait photography tips to get you going.
Be sure to refer to Jessica's video for even more tips and examples of backlit portraits, and then grab your gear, head out with a friend, and practice your newfound portrait lighting tips!
Learn More:
- How to Blur the Background in Portraits
- Easy Portrait Photography Tips for Taking Great Photos of Your Kids