How to take a picture of subject with room backlighting?

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

Hard to say exactly without seeing the actual scene; could be as simple as knowing how to properly meter/expose the ambient light, but this sounds like a job for fill-flash. Group shots could, quite possibly require multiple flashes. Again, it depends.

Horoscope Fish said:

MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

Hard to say exactly without seeing the actual scene; could be as simple as knowing how to properly meter/expose the ambient light, but this sounds like a job for fill-flash. Group shots could, quite possibly require multiple flashes. Again, it depends.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by multiple flashes? I'd be using either the Sony RX100 III or A6000. It just really bothered me to see these pictures of people that worked hard where their faces are in the dark. If I'm ever taking pictures in a similar situation I'd like to be able to see them.

MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

I think it depends on how important the background is.

If you want to include the background in the composition, then somehow you have to be able to balance the available light with the flash light.

I shoot my daughters at indoor cheer. Flash is sometimes allowed, but with the recycle time of the built-in flash, it is not pratical.

But . . . I do take impromptu group shots off the stage of the team sometimes. And for this, I use the built-in flash on my camera.

For that . . . I crank up the ISO to ISO3200 and dial down the flash 1/3 of a stop and the pictures turn out fantastic.

Dialing down the flash takes the edge off the flash and reduces the chance of hot spots. And dialing up the ISO to 3200 gives the camera a chance to be able to balance the light between the subjects (lit by the flash) and the background (so the people aren't just surrounded by blackness.)

For this, I just put the camera into aperture priority and full matrix metering and my Nikon can sort out everything.

I shoot this around f/4 to try to get the most people in focus.

For large groups, you'd want to focus about 1/3 way into the group of people. That way your depth of field can encompass a bit in front and behind your plane of focus.

If you have an external flash, you can turn it 45 degrees so some of the light goes straight forward, but a lot can be bounced off a low white ceiling if available. This can help to light up the people in back or background.

If it wasn't an impromptu shot, I would manually meter / set exposure settings to get the background the brightness I wanted and then add iTTL (auto flash) to fill in the subject.

Take care & Happy Shooting!


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MaxPowers37 said:

Horoscope Fish said:

MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

Hard to say exactly without seeing the actual scene; could be as simple as knowing how to properly meter/expose the ambient light, but this sounds like a job for fill-flash. Group shots could, quite possibly require multiple flashes. Again, it depends.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by multiple flashes?

Click to expand...

I mean using two or more off-camera flashes located where needed to be able to illuminate the group of people being photographed.

MaxPowers37 said:

I'd be using either the Sony RX100 III or A6000. It just really bothered me to see these pictures of people that worked hard where their faces are in the dark. If I'm ever taking pictures in a similar situation I'd like to be able to see them.

Click to expand...

If you're going to be working with the on-camera pop-up flash only your options will be more limited but the short answer is the same: fill-flash.

Shoot RAW, set metering to expose for the scene as a whole (Multi/Matrix/Evaluative Meter,) then raise shadows and drop highlights in post:




Original (photo DPRForums user Karl Scharf)




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MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

MaxPowers37. Take a look through this link about how to use off-camera flash. This means, you use a light stand to hold your flash away from the camera. A flash away from your camera, will allow you to control shadow, control highlights. When taking a photo of a group of people, and you have to over-power the backlighting, you may want to use more than one flash (multiple flashguns and multiple light stands).


Lighting 101 by David Hobby (the Strobist).

MaxPowers37 said:

When looking at a local newsletter I noticed they had pictures of people receiving awards indoors and the people were all in the dark due to the backlighting from lamps and other lights. There was a group photo and the people at the ends were especially dark.

It got me wondering if I were to try and take that picture what should I do? Change the metering mode and focus on the people? Point the camera down at the people's shoes to focus first and then move it up to take the picture? It seems like a flash would work for a few people closer to the camera, but what about a group shot?

Click to expand...

In a situation where the background is much brighter than the subject there are a couple of easy ways to address the situation:

1. Use fill light to raise the illumination on the subject
2. Expose for the subject, and let the foreground get too bright
3. Adjust the room lighting in order to get more light on your subjects
4. Move the subjects to someplace where they have more light on them, or you have a darker background
5. Shoot from a different location to avoid the overly bright background.
6. Shot in raw, and attempt to compensate for the dramatically different lighting in post production.

A lot will depend on the image you are attempting to get, and how much influence you have over the situation.

An easy way to get fill light on your subject is on-camera flash. If the on-camera flash doesn't provide wide enough coverage, then step back, or use a diffuser on the flash. If you can afford one, a powerful hot-shoe flash with a pattern wide enough for the widest you will be shooting is fairly easy, and generally produces acceptable results.

An easy way to expose for the subject is to take a test shot, allowing the camera to meter and set the exposure. If the subject is too dark, use positive exposure compensation. Keep trying different levels of exposure compensation until your subject has the desired lightness.

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I'm not claiming that these are the only solutions, nor am I claiming that these are the only ways to implement those solutions. I am just putting them out as simple ways a beginner can address the issue.

Other ways of providing fill flash include using multiple off-camera flashes, reflectors, light modifiers.