All photographs and content are copyright and  owned by Martin Glyn Jones c 1999-2011 Martin Glyn Jones Photography Backlit Photography How to deal with Back Lighting How often have you been on vacation and your sunset pictures all turn out too dark.  The general rule when taking a photograph is to have the sun behind you somewhere so it is shining in the face of your subject, whether it be a person or a mountain.  But sometimes great pictures present themselves and you have to take a picture against the sun to some degree or other.  Backlit pictures, taking pictures against the sun or a source of light often can make the camera's automatic settings result in a darkened picture. The camera thinks there is too much light and dims down to some degree.  A trick that you can try in different situations is to aim the camera away from the source of light - in this case a sunset.  Point the camera off to the left or right of the main source of light - and adjust the exposure settings for that light.   Then aim the camera at the sunset or toward the 'light' and take the picture with those settings.  If you are shooting in Program mode or Automatic you will have to hold down the Exposure Lock button as you move it back to the subject that you want to take a picture of.  Then click the shutter.  The wonderful thing about a digital camera is that you can view the picture immediately to see if the lighting is adequate.   In a situation where the sun is behind the person you want to photograph you will have to use a 'fill' flash unless you want the person's face in shadow.  A 'fill flash' is essentially using the flash to fill in shadows which would be created by the bright light behind.  More on this in another article. This does not just apply to a 'sunset' situation.  If you are out in the middle of the day and you want to take a picture of your friend in front of Niagara Falls but the sun is behind them what do you do?  If you just take the picture there will be too much contrast between their face and the sunny day behind.  If you use fill flash you can have, with practice, a perfect balance between the lighting on the face and the back lighting from the sun.