Fun With Fill Lighting
I’m a sucker for back-lighting. I probably put the sun behind subjects a little too often, to be honest, but I can’t help myself– it looks awesome!
It can be a little tricky though, as it can sometimes wash out details, or leave the foreground underexposed if you don’t use flash, a light, or a reflector to throw some illumination back towards the subject.
Such was the case on this photo-shoot with my pal, Maria. I wanted to make sure I didn’t over expose the sky in this beautiful sunset, and I didn’t have an assistant with me to direct light onto Maria, so unfortunately, she was left a little underexposed, and I begrudgingly threw these images in the “pass” category.
But today I figured out a new method for adding fill-light in Photoshop, without washing out color, or losing a ton of contrast. The technique’s not perfect, but I think it’s good enough to come in pretty handy in an emergency.
I won’t use it all the time — it’s *much* better to get the result in-camera with a fill flash, or a relector — but I think this method works pretty good in a pinch.