Cross lighting with the sun

Have you ever tried to shoot a portrait of someone with the sun in the background? If you did this without a flash or strobe, you ended up with one of two results:

A) You exposed for your subject and the entire sky was washed out with no detail
or...
B) You exposed for the sky and got a pretty blue sky but your subject was a silhouette (completely black)

You see, your camera will not expose for this shot correctly when your subject is back lit by the sun. So today I'm going to tell you how to get this shot.

First, you'll need one off-camera strobe. I use the Nikon SB800. You can either mount the strobe on a stand or have someone handhold it for you. You could even handhold it yourself in a pinch. The ideal set up is to have your strobe, subject, and the sun in a straight line with each other while making sure the sun is out of the frame. Take a look at this diagram:



Once you are setup, put your camera in Manual mode and set your shutter speed to its highest sync speed (probably 1/250). Then take some shots, without the flash, adjusting the aperture until you get a nicely exposed sky. Don't worry about your subject being a silhouette, you are going to light him or her with the strobe. Once you have a nice exposure for your sun, put your strobe in manual mode and dial it down to 1/2 power, and take your shot. If the flash is too much for your subject, dial it down to 1/4 power. If it's not enough, move your strobe closer to your subject. It might take a few shots to get the look you want, but this is a great starting point. Here's a shot I took this evening with this exact setup:



If you are interested in learning more about this technique or other lighting information, make sure you check out The Strobist Blog.