Against the light in the naturalistic photography

The charm of a different photo.

Text and photos by Ernesto Francini

To give more strength to an image it is necessary to go out of the classical or traditional canons of the photo that foresee the shooting with the light behind the photographer.

The good photographer has to be aware that the first one and more important tool to its disposition is not the photographic camera but the light, and it is the full knowledge of this last that it often does difference between a normal photo and a success photo.

The most important thing is to learn to know the light and its effects, the way according to which it produce reverberation and it is reflected on the subjects during the various moments of the day and to choose the correct moment to do the shooting.

From the dawn to the sunset the inclination of the sun in comparison to the terrestrial plan changes and the light engraves forms and different dimensions to the subjects that it strikes, always describing them in different way.

We enter so in a difficult field to manage but full of charm and seduction in which the careful naturalist photographer can express all its creativeness through the image taken against the light.

We can generally say to be against the light when the angle sun-photographer-subject is small of 90°.

The strong present contrasts inside the framed scene impose a careful use of the photographer devices and of the available artificial light; particularly if the subject to shoot is not a simple landscape but a naturalistic subject nearest to us, for instance an animal or a flower, and this is the case to which we make reference in the present treatment.

Without entering in the worth of complex theories and variations on the theme endless respect the use of our apparatuses, that punctually they are forgotten when we are operating on the field, following some fundamental rules are enunciated to keep in consideration, for the one who it begins to practise the naturalistic photo and that in future it will be able to improve with the acquired experience and in base to his own personal tastes.

When the photographer has decided for a shooting against the light the better rule to follow, first of all, it is that to wonder which resulted is wanted with our final image.

At this point normally the practicable paths are two:

The first one is what foresees to give strength to the image creating a” silhouette " effect, privileging so a strong contrast between environment and subject.

The second one is that to balance background correctly with the image of the subject in foreground and with the purpose to get a harmonic and balanced composition between lights and shades in the scene,capturing the sparkling light in it because of the sun set behind the subject (for instance spray and drops of water that become dots diamonds and coat of hair and plumage of the animals that appear shining).

In the first case the resultant image will be deprived of all the information of detail of the described subject but it will have more expressive strength in the description of an instant or moment of its life.

If we want to have this result will be necessary to effect a SPOT measurement on the clearest zone inside the framed field (for instance on the sky for a bird in flight) and to shoot with the gotten exposure.

This will assure a sky correctly exposed and the outline of the subject in form of " silhouette ".

White stork (Ciconia ciconia).	Grey heron at dusk (Ardea cinerea).

In the second case a SPOT exposure on the subject would guarantee the good legibility of the same but it would cause a strong overexposure of background, making it same photographically illegible.

For instance think to a bird in staid foreground on a branch of tree that has as background a bright sky.In this case if the subject is not very distant the only valid solution is represented by the use of the flash in FILL-IN condition (lightning of brightening) combined to a balanced exposure reading of background.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops).	Robin (Erithacus rubecola).

Creating so a harmonic effect deprived of strong contrasts.

If instead the subject is distant, out of our flash capacity, it is advisable to use a multiple zone exposure reading preferably combined with a system of automatic BRACKETING (frame with multiple exposures).

We will get so more frames from which we will choose the succeeded best.

Sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopica).	Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus).

Great white egret (Egretta alba).