Original subtitles

All right, so we're moving from silhouettes now

into the next tool, which is backlight, rim

light.

And that's a logical progression because, you know,

really it's in many ways, it's the same

thing.

We've got our subject matter in the shadows

and we've got the light source in behind

them.

Really the only difference between a silhouette and

a backlight or a rim lit subject is

in a silhouette, they're in the shadows on

a highlight and in a rim light scenario,

they're backlit on a shadow, on a dark

background.

So for example, if you look at, so

this is Dave and Quinn.

We mentioned earlier, DQ Studios was one of

our big inspirations when we got started.

So having them model for us at a

workshop was a bit of an intimidating thing,

but here they are.

And if you look at Quinn here, she's

backlit, where she's backlit on a highlight, she's

silhouetted, right, and Dave over here, he's backlit

on a shadow, backlit on a dark background,

so he's rim lit there, right?

Rim lit here, if you look at Quinn,

she goes from silhouette, silhouette here into rim

light on her chin.

So, and of course, all we've done here

is exposed for the highlights in the background,

right?

Or underexposed the scene.

I'm gonna start and roll through a bunch

of examples of where we've used backlight and

rim light in some photographs and reverse engineer

them, break them down for you.

I'm gonna start with portrait examples, right, where

we have control, and then move more into

PJ, photojournalistic, documentary style images, and also we're

gonna start with natural light examples and move

into creating our own light.

So here's a natural light portrait example.

This is after their ceremony, and we're hiking

up this trail at Moraine Lake up to

the top of the rock pile to go

make some portraits.

And as soon as we got to this

point here, Eric and I looked up the

path and it was like, ooh, it's like

this glorious light just filtering down through all

the rocks and trees.

So one of us stayed here, I think

I stayed here, and Erica led them up

the path.

And I'm just making frames the whole way

up, exposing for the highlights in her veil,

right?

Catching all that nice backlight.

So, and we just actually had them walk

back down and back up that last section

of stairs a couple times to make sure

we had a nice frame, and just asked,

you know, Brian, make sure you help her

with her train as you go up there.

Okay?

Portrait, natural light.

Okay, anytime we see something suspended in the

air, some particles or smoke, hairspray, champagne, snow,

rain, anything, particles in the air, think backlight,

okay?

Backlight makes that shit glow.

So here it is, you catch the glow

there, and we're exposing for the highlights, okay?

Now, when we've got backlit on dark background,

it really glows.

So this next, so this obviously is not

a portrait.

This is just storytelling in the morning.

Same here, but now reposition myself so that

they're backlit on a dark background.

And you'll see on the field, Erica and

I are often looking for that exact concoction

of ingredients.

Where can we have them backlit on a

dark background?

Especially when we're taking those more safe portraits,

you know, where it's more about the moments

and filling the frame with them, smiling, looking

at the camera.

We're always looking for dark background, backlit.

And we've got control in those situations, right?

Okay, we're gonna go make portraits.

Let's go over there, because the sun's gonna

hit them from the back, and what's behind

them is in the shade, okay?

And then in this situation where it's just

storytelling, it's like, okay, where can I go

with my camera to have that scenario, backlit

on dark background, and then exposing for those

highlights?

So now, moving to this one, this is

basically replicating the exact same scenario, backlit on

a dark background, but we're creating our own

backlight, okay?

So we've underexposed the ambient scene quite a

lot, right?

You can see the mountain scene in behind

there, and then now made our own highlights

in behind the brides.

And in this case, what we ended up

doing, and we had to problem solve our

way here, because we tried having one light

in behind them, and that basically limited us

to having that light, you know, holding that

light.

Down by their torsos, yeah.

Yeah, so I was basically, I think you

were shooting, right?

So I was in behind them, holding the

light like this, and I'm wanting to hold

it as high as I can.

Without peeking through them.

Without peeking through here, because then, of course,

Erica catches a big flare.

So as high as I can, but having

it disappear behind them.

And what was happening is we were getting

all these highlights coming up under their chins.

So then- We're getting blown-out highlights

under the chins, and blown-out highlight of

her shirt.

Yeah.

Right, the white shirt.

And that's often a problem with this, is

white wedding dresses and white shirts.

They pick up the light too much.

So then we brought in a second A1,

and so I was holding them like this.

And we actually learned this technique from our

friend Trevor Daly.

I think he calls it the Hollywood lighting

setup.

This one's different than that.

This is not that.

No.

I thought we were doing that.

Trevor Daly- Oh, we weren't crossing.

We weren't crossing, yeah.

We weren't crossing.

Okay, scratch that.

So this is just pointing straight at the

back of their heads.

This photo should have been much farther up

on the stack.

So I wanted this to be a-

It's fine.

It's not that complicated.

It's just, and it goes to show you

that we don't really know what we're doing.

It's not like we walk into a scene,

and we're like, boom, boom, boom, done.

We problem solve our way through it, and

even when we're done, we're like, oh yeah,

what did we do?

So we have to problem solve our way

through it continuously.

But I do wanna share Trevor's Hollywood lighting

- We'll do that later.

Trick, but we'll find a better example.

So in this case, it's just two A1s

so that we can hold them up higher

and have them right behind Madeline and Katie's

heads.

Yes.

So that we had that wraparound rim light

all the way.

Yeah, because one of the things you'll notice

when you backlight with a flash, it's actually

easier to backlight with a video light, but

it has to be very dark for you

to backlight with a video light.

But when you backlight with a flash, you

often get these gaps in the light.

Missing highlights.

Where it doesn't wrap all the way around.

And so sometimes by using two speed lights,

you can get it, or backing up, you

can get that rim light to wrap all

the way around.

Right, so, and again, no grid, right?

The grid comes off when we go in

behind, so it does wrap around, and we

just keep it zoomed all the way out.

Yeah.

Exact same thing here, but this is a

combination of our flash backlight with natural backlight.

So we noticed, you know, this little pocket,

this little opening in amongst the shrubbery.

So the backlight on all of the shrubs,

all the greenery here is sunlight, okay?

So we've gone dark to like bring out

those highlights, and then all the shadows in

there fall into darkness.

So we had Madeline and Katie go into

a little opening that was in the shadows,

and then we brought the B10, right?

Because this was, I mean, this was midday,

so we're gonna need more power than anyone.

B10 at full power.

Full power, in behind them.

So you were shooting?

Yes.

Eric is shooting, and I'm basically behind them

like this with the flash, and full power,

probably about three to five meters behind them.

Yeah, and really, it would just look like

this.

Okay, there's too much light on Katie's shirt.

Are you able to flag the light a

little bit?

I need to flag the light.

Okay, it's not wrapping around them entirely.

Can you back up a little bit?

Okay, back up.

So it's a lot of problem solving along

the way in order to get this photo.

Okay, this is the one I wanted to

start with.

This is just a straightforward making our own

backlight on a dark background.

So this is at night on the Brooklyn

Bridge, and so what all we've done is

basically found a shooting perspective where we can

feature the skyline in the background, and then

we could have Milo and Courtney somewhere within

that canvas, within that background.

What was key, so first of all, we're

exposed for the highlights, right?

One 200th of a second, and then effing

it up to drop the exposure down for

just the highlights in the scene, and then

figuring out where the camera has to be

and where Milo and Courtney have to be

so that they're gonna be backlit on the

dark part of the background, okay?

Because you can see that, you can imagine

how much less they would have popped if

they were up here, right?

So that's just a matter of positioning, and

then the same thing, just one.

And a little help from Photoshop, probably.

Yeah, we'll get there.

Let's get to the post-production at the

end.

So, and then one of us in behind

them with just an A1 aimed behind them,

no grid, right?

And in terms of all of this fill

light in there, that's just ambient light coming

from the Brooklyn Bridge.

There's lots of light on there, plenty of

light to focus and see them.

It's the underexposing that brings it dark.

Plus, they're both wearing white, right?

And so that's basically creating that fill.

That backlight is bouncing up to fill them

in.

If we didn't have that, we could have

chosen maybe to bring another flash in for

the fill light, or maybe we would have

liked it to just leave them in the

shadows.

I think we tried a few with a

little modeling light in the front, but this

is what we like the best, yeah.

And then, yeah, when Erica's saying with help

from Photoshop, that's just a little bit of

clean up around here.

Yeah, a couple of distracting highlights that were

burned down around there, yes.

Like if you can't find a point of

exact darkness to put them on, you can

use those tools in Photoshop.

Yeah, and we're gonna get heavily into that.

Oh, yes.

Okay, make sense?

Okay, same thing here, exposed for the drama

in the sky.

Okay, so this is just after sunset, or

just before?

Just after.

Just after sunset, right?

So it doesn't look this dramatic until you

underexpose.

So when Erica underexposed, all of the detail

got lost in the trees here.

So we've got the ocean behind us.

We had like five more minutes for portraits.

We had five minutes total for portraits.

Total, basically, right.

Sunset, okay, portrait time, you got five minutes.

And she basically made a frame.

I remember she showed me, what do you

think?

We could put them down here in this

darkness, because this is all darkness, right?

Well, let's try it, okay?

So I headed back there with them.

I'm crouched down behind them, holding a speed

light, okay?

Just crouched in behind them like this.

And as soon as Erica took the first

frame, I knew it was gonna be awesome,

because of her reaction was like, ooh.

We didn't realize, because of the humidity in

the air from the ocean, that that backflash,

not only was it gonna rim light them,

but it was gonna backlight all of that

humidity and create this cool little cone.

So that single backflash, no grid, zoomed out,

is creating the rim light, lighting up all

the humidity, and backlighting all of the foliage

here.

Again, I'm about three to five meters behind

them, okay?

And your job as the lighter back there

is obviously to get the light right, but

it's also to kind of keep them reassured.

We probably spent a few minutes trying to

get this one dialed in, and trying to

coach them into the right position.

She was a dancer, she knew how to

pose.

Yeah, you did not coach her into that

position, but that was...

But I kept them feeling reassured.

Yeah, you kept them...

Just letting them know, you guys, this is

worth it.

This is a money shot.

This is a money shot.

You got it.

This is the exact same thing as the

previous shot.

Humidity in the air, right?

This is in Hong Kong at the top

of the peak.

We're basically inside a cloud, and we just

have them walk across the road, and behind.

One speed light in behind.

Yeah, and then you get all these unpredictable

results, like the crisp specular rays coming out

of her head there.

We don't know why that's happening, or how

it's happening, and we probably couldn't repeat it.

Okay, so again, whenever we've got things floating

in the sky, we're thinking backlight.

And this is only a sprinkle.

It looks like it could be a downpour,

but when you backflash rain, it's like every

single drop just starts to glow.

And so all Erica's done here is she's

exposed for the highlights, right?

Up in the venue there.

Everything falls into darkness.

And then I'm in behind them, basically back

here, hiding behind the train of her dress.

She's got a nice big train.

Grid off, right?

About three to five meters behind them.

Basically like this.

I'm crouched down, so I'm trying to hide

myself from Erica's camera, and the flash.

So sort of like this, and then moving

with them as we go.

And okay, back, guys.

Let's go back now.

Okay.

Back, okay, again.

Okay, we get the point, babe.

I was gonna make the flash go.

Same thing here.

This is in the UK.

This is Jamie Bott, really good wedding photographer.

They've flown us across the Atlantic Ocean to

shoot their wedding.

In February.

Yes, middle of February, claggy, overcast, rainy day.

And, I lost my breath there.

I lost my breath.

From your backlighting shenanigans?

So, and Eric and I, I remember during

reception, so we're all inside there, we're eating

dinner, and we're feeling a little bit stressed

out about portraits.

Cause they gave us like, I mean, his

wedding shot, he gave us like literally five

minutes in the middle of the day, and

it was pouring rain.

We didn't get anything we were happy with.

And we got some safe port, but we

didn't, we didn't feel.

And it's not that even we care about

portraits that much, but we knew, we knew

that he cared.

Yeah.

So.

We didn't feel like we had anything epic

for him yet.

Yeah.

But we knew that it was, it was

the blue hour outside.

Right?

The blue hour's our favorite hour.

So we had the dusk light.

We knew there were these gnarly trees down

beneath the venue.

But they're like in between the soup and

the salad now.

And Jamie's all about photography, of course.

Charlotte could care less.

So we're like, ah, do we go, do

we ask him to like go out into

the rain to make a portrait?

We knew that Jamie would be into it.

It's probably the last thing Charlotte's going to

want to do.

So we're like, well, let's just ask.

Let's just ask.

So we went up between soup and salad.

Hey guys, do you want to just go,

can we go outside and try to get

a cool little portrait right now with the

blue hour?

Jamie, of course, was like, yep, let's go.

And Charlotte was.

Oh, really?

Okay.

All right, here we go.

Okay, we'll do it.

I'm doing this for you, babe.

So we want to be fast.

So Erica runs, she takes the camera.

She runs outside.

She goes down the hill to the tree

that we know we want to go to.

I hang back with them while we get

the umbrella.

Charlotte gets on the gumboots and we start

making our way out.

And I'm basically like, okay guys, down there

towards that tree, Erica's waiting for us.

And as we're going, I've got the flash.

The flash is popping.

So I know, okay, Erica's shooting.

So I just get into position down there

guys.

And I'm behind them like this.

I just crouch down.

The flash is popping.

Right down to the tree guys.

Right down there.

Keep going, yeah, yeah.

And by the time we got there, Erica

was basically, okay, cool, we got it.

We can head back in now.

We actually did like a boring posed, penguin

pose, forehead to forehead.

Backlight in the rain shot down there, but

it sucked compared to this one.

This one had movement.

This one was less expected.

The thing with backlight is it's much more

forgiving than if we're lighting, if we're actually

lighting their skin from the front or from

the side, we have to have the flash

power dialed in or the distance in the

sweet spot or we blow them out or

we're too dark.

When you go in behind, you've got much

more forgiveness.

So I don't even know what the power

was.

It was whatever, but the only thing is

this really thin fabric tends to blow out

and totally clip.

It is tricky with bales and trains that

are sheer fabric because it does blow out.

It's hard to get a rim light and

not blow out the fabric.

So we're gonna teach you some tricks for

adjusting that later.

In the Photoshop stuff.

And basically all Erica did before I got

there was as she went down, she would

have chose her ISO, probably a low ISO

knowing that we're gonna flash and we're gonna

underexpose because it didn't look this dramatic.

And then she just effed it up until

she was exposed for the highlights in the

sky and the highlights in there and everything

else fell away into this dramatic canvas for

her ambient exposure.

And then we just started and then we

just basically added the paint by adding these

highlights in behind.

All of the frames where she caught the

flash down here, up here, over here, of

course were flared out.

But as long as that flash was hidden,

it was just the rim light.

Same thing, backlit snow.

They're all snowflakes.

These ones are Christmas lights on the tree.

And then all of this ambient light is

just coming from the venue right behind me.

This is kind of an extreme example of

the rim light.

This is just in a small little bathroom.

And we've just gone dark, effed it up

to kill all the ambient light in the

bathroom.

And then just one flash in behind them,

no grid, and exposing just for that rim

of light.

Same thing here.

Whereas here we've killed all the ambient light

with the shutter speed at about 1,200th

of a second.

And then made our own rim light in

behind.

Here we've made our own rim light in

behind.

So nothing's different about this flash exposure.

The ambient exposure, though, is drastically different.

Here we've left the shutter open for about

30 seconds.

On the tripod, getting the composition figured out,

figuring out where the Milky Way is in

the sky, and then leaving that shutter open.

And while that shutter is open, just popping

the flash in behind them.

And we saw that solitary tree and realized

that that's probably the best.

I think initially what we tried was to

make the tree a bright spot on which

to silhouette them.

That was our first attempt.

That didn't work.

We probably spent 15, 20 minutes doing that.

And then we turned the flash around and

decided to rim light them on the tree.

And then we tried casting a shadow on

the tree.

That didn't work either.

This is literally the only shot that worked

for me.

And it's easy to think, look at this

thing, oh, cool, we have this shot, we

have this idea, let's go and bang it

off.

But this was like, we had no idea.

We ended up at this after 30 or

40 minutes of trying and experimenting.

And we only had the luxury of doing

that because they were game, right?

Well, he was game.

Well, they were both game.

No, she was freezing.

So was I.

But she's happy now.

She was a good sport, yeah.

She was doing it for Jason.

Yeah, Jason's a wedding photographer, super into it.

And so, but otherwise, often with our couples,

if we're gonna try for something like this,

we gotta get it done in like three

minutes.

So we'll often get out there, try to

get everything set up on the tripod, figure

it out, so they just stand on the

X and we can bang it off.

Lots of problem solving.

That's kind of it for portraits.

We're gonna move into now documentary, using backlight

in documentary examples.

Okay.

Here we have the bride having her morning

shower before the wedding.

And I remember Erica, so this is one

of the rare situations where the bride was

gonna- Well, I had to get permission.

Of course.

Yes.

Yes.

And again, when we get into breaking down

the wedding, going behind the scenes and talking

about our strategy for each section, gaining that

trust and access is gonna be something that

we're gonna dive right into.

But in this case, yes, obviously Erica's gonna

need permission to do this because you can

see we've set up a flash to backlight

the water droplets, right?

And I was downstairs documenting the groom and

the guys getting ready.

Erica's upstairs.

I remember she came and she's like, I've

got this cool idea for a shower shot,

but I'm too scared to ask.

And I knew that Rayanne would be totally

cool with this, with Erica doing this.

So I basically just asked for her.

I said, hey, Rayanne, Erica's got this really

cool idea for a shower shot.

And she's like, oh, really?

Cool.

So is that all right?

He's like, yeah, yeah, totally fine.

So Erica's, of course, she put a flash

on a light stand.

It was a big- Well, she was

gonna shower anyways.

Of course she's gonna shower.

No, nothing about this is set up and

it's only staged to the extent that Erica

has placed a light in the shower.

Everything else is just- And asked for

permission.

And asked for permission, okay?

So then basically what Erica did is she

put herself in that spot and basically documented

the whole story as Rayanne came in, had

her shower, did her thing.

This is just, this is her son.

Her stepson, yeah.

Her stepson, who is 10 years old.

That's all this is.

This is literally a split second where he

peeked in and asked, mom, where's my toothbrush

sort of thing.

There's nothing else to it.

There's nothing about this that was staged.

There's nothing, he wasn't peeking or watching.

It was just this split second that Erica

caught.

And he's saying this because this particular image

has started a number of arguments on Instagram,

which are very entertaining if you go and

look.

Yeah.

People read into this things that it's not,

okay?

So this is just straightforward storytelling.

Innocent as can be.

Most mothers completely relate to this.

They're like, I can't even have a shower

in peace without my kid coming to bother

me.

So then all Erica's done is basically, dropped

down the ambient exposure in the room.

So she's basically exposed to the highlights outside.

Did you hang the dress there or was

it there?

It was there.

It was there, okay.

So she's included it because it adds scope.

It adds context to the scene.

And then positioned the light so that it

would be hidden behind the bride, okay?

And that backlight is backlighting up all of

the water droplets.

And right here.

Hairspray, right?

Well, they're doing the hairspray.

We gotta backlight that.

No, we don't have to.

We don't have to.

Everybody backlights the hairspray.

But in this case, Erica kind of, she

went high, found an upper advantage point where

she could kind of shoot down.

And she's exposed for the highlights, the extreme

highlights in the room and allowed the rest

of the scene to just fall into darkness.

And then added her own highlights with the

backlight, which caught the dress, which was hanging.

What was that, like a loft up there?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And here I've basically done the same thing

with the groom who's getting the shaving thing

done at the salon.

I've got my light on the light stand

and I've positioned it in behind.

And I'm just in close shooting for the

highlights, okay?

So everything else in the salon is basically

falling away into darkness.

And that backlight illuminates all these little specks

and flecks.

Okay, when we get into reception lighting with

you guys, we're gonna deconstruct our six lighting

setups that we use on the dance floor

in great detail.

But when this happens, when the bride grabs

the champagne bottle, we immediately switch to this

lighting setup because we're thinking backlight.

I think at the time we were sidelighting

them, one of us was shooting, one of

us was lighting.

And as soon as she grabbed the champagne,

we're like, bring that light in behind.

And- Or confetti bombs.

Confetti bombs.

Or smoke bombs or anything.

Yeah.

There's particles in there.

Exactly.

This looks really dark, but it's actually bright.

Like there was lots of ambient light.

We had no problems focusing.

Most of this fill light is all just

from that ambient, but it's an open air

venue.

So there's no walls back there, which is

why it looks so dark.

And so I've just gone in behind and

basically I'm playing hide and seek with Erica's

camera, right?

I'm trying to like move with the action

and keep the flash hidden in behind the

dancers so it doesn't kill Erica's exposure.

We get that nice rim light and it

makes all the champagne pop when it pops.

And this is just that backlight coming across

the six back here.

This is fill light and dodging right in

there.

Anything else on that?

Yeah.

And again, the grid off when we go

in behind.

This is not the first time the bride

jumped in the pool this night.

This is like the 12th time.

I think the first time she jumped in,

we barely caught it with like on-camera

flash or something.

But now this is like a couple hours

later, everybody's out in the pool, in their

clothes, a big pool party.

So now we're playing around with our off

-camera flash.

Okay, so we've positioned our light on a

light stand far side of the pool, went

and found a place right behind this girl

where we could hide the flash.

And we've killed all the ambient light in

the scene.

Okay, like this is right beside the venue.

So there's lots of ambient light, but we've

intentionally gone really dark and we're basically just

making our own highlights.

So all the light in here is from

that one flash except these highlights in the

pool from the underwater lights.

But all the backlit droplets, the rim light

here, everything is from that one flash.

Okay, and then this is just shooting through

that moment when she jumps in the water.

Okay, this is in India during one of

their receptions.

This is all, well, not natural light, but

it's the ambient light.

These are the lights that they've set up,

the venue and the DJ and the dance

floor.

And all we've done is exposed for the

highlights.

So I've gone up onto the top of

the hillside here and gone dark to expose

for all the lights which are backlighting the

scene here.

Everything else falls away into darkness.

And then in this next example, what we've

done is, so this is obviously just shooting

the action as it's happening.

But then when we had a few minutes

for a portrait, we took them over here

and we walked right up to here and

we had them stand up at the top

of the hillside and we were down at

the bottom with our camera shooting up.

Here.

So up above there are these uplit trees.

And then basically the entire hill slope, as

you saw, was blanketed with all these pin

lights.

And so we did a bunch of frames

where we just exposed for the highlights in

the trees and the highlights on the grass

and made our own highlight in behind.

So holding the flash in behind for the

rim light.

And then Erica started doing funky stuff with

the lens.

Well, I- Zooming out, right?

Yeah, so I dropped my shutter speed to

about half a second.

Put my f-stop way up so that

I was still exposed for the highlights and

my eyes are way down.

And then within that half a second exposure,

I just zoomed my lens.

Or zoomed out my lens, yeah.

It was the 16 to 35.

And it's not like it worked like this

on the first shot.

Oh no.

Right?

We kept tweaking.

Yeah.

Okay, so when we deconstruct those lighting setups,

one of them that we're gonna show you

is basically where we've got a front light

and a back light.

So in this case, we've got, Erica's got

flash on, on-camera flash for the fill

light, but that on-camera flash, it's also

triggering an off-camera flash that I'm holding.

I'm basically crouched in behind them and we're

running through the champagne together.

This is like the champagne spray exit, I

guess they call it.

And so I'm just ducked in behind them

with the back light, no grid.

Right?

Ditto.

Same thing.

Exact same thing here.

This one, actually, I'm surprised we got focus.

I have no idea how we got focus.

They sprinted through that thing, but we got

her.

Okay, same thing here.

Front flash, back flash.

On-camera bounce flash for the fill, and

then one off-camera hidden in behind for

that kicker light.

And what drew us to that is because

she had this great hair and this great

hair was flailing all over the place and

we really wanted to give it that 3D

pop from the background.

Okay, so now kind of moving into a

couple examples where we're actually using more than

one flash.

So like we've talked about and like we're

really gonna get into, with speeches, if we

can include the speaker and the reaction in

the same frame, that's the holy grail.

It's not always possible, but when it lines

up, it's great.

So in this case, I think Erica was

shooting the speaker and I was focused on

the reaction, the bride and groom here.

So I obviously had my flash positioned over

here coming in from the side, from about

this height, about maybe five meters away from

them, wherever I could find space really in

the reception.

Just got my little light stand, aim the

flash with a grid right on the couple.

And you can see the difference between short

light and broad light here.

How much more flattering and awesome it is

to be coming in like this short versus

this broad, but it is what it is

there.

But I also figured out that if I

brought in another light.

This is not your shot.

This is your shot?

Yeah.

Oh, sorry.

Erica figured out that if she brought in

another flash in behind and positioned it so

that it was hidden in behind the speaker,

she could have this, because the speaker obviously

was in the shade.

This light with the grid is not hitting

her at all.

So that light allowed her to also isolate

her over here with the rim light.

Another thing I would have done here is

made sure my F-stop was high enough

that that foreground rimlet subject was in focus

enough to be recognizable as someone making a

speech.

Right.

This one's yours.

This one's, yeah.

And exact same thing, right?

And this is the rehearsal dinner the night

before.

And this doesn't happen first shot, first speech.

This was like the fifth and final speech.

We sort of like problem solving and finding

ourselves towards the point where, because I started

by just photographing them with my flash coming

in from the side.

And then eventually I realized that there was

a position where I could stand to include

them with the speaker.

And then I realized that if I shared

Erica's light, because she was obviously, she had

her light for the speaker and just moved

it a little bit, I could use her

light to rim light the speaker.

So it's just basically problem solving our way.

Okay, last one.

This is, apparently this is called wailing.

It's a thing.

Yeah, it's never happened again since, but when

it happened at this wedding, it's like, what

the fuck is going on here?

And again, we immediately switched to the backlighting

technique, okay?

So brought the light in behind, trying to

hide it in behind the action.

So that's the rim light.

It's back, because we want to backlight this

spray, right?

That's the only way.

Short lighting him.

I mean, this is a crazy thing to

happen, but really the only way we're going

to showcase it is if we can backlight

that, make that spray pop.

We're going to go out into the field

now together behind the scenes, and we're going

to look at using backlight and rim light

out in the real world.

Thanks guys.