Backlighting still lifes

Many objects take on a new translucent glow when they are backlit. In this example the wilting daffodil was on its last legs but the wrinkly texture provides a good photo opportunity with the sun behind it.

The problem is the background. To get a good backlit picture you may find the background is cluttered and spoils the shot. You could select around and remove this later if you have an image editing program. But it would be much easier if you rectified the problem at the taking stage.

I used the nearest thing to hand which was a dark blue case from a Lastolite reflector. You have to be careful where you place the dark item or you could block the sun from the main subject. By holding it up you can move it around to a suitable place while looking through the viewfinder.

And once the cloning is done we have the finished picture. Makes a change from all the fluffy spring shots don't you think.

And with a clean background like this it's easy to replace it with different colours if you prefer...again using the selection tool (Magic wand is fine for this example) and paste a new background or use hue saturation to change the colour.

In the examples below I added clouds, cut from the sky of another photo on the left and made up a background using Motion blur and grain in Photoshop for the example on the right.