Waving the Red Flags

I had another opportunity this past weekend to shoot some more drum corps. There was a drum corps show in Corona, CA on Friday night and another, on Saturday night, at Paramount High School.

For both nights, I decided to shoot with the sun backlighting my subjects, rather than trying to go the typical route of shooting with the sun to my back. For one reason, at both stadiums, the stadium was running mainly east to west. So the sun was going to set on the endzone side of the stadium. This makes for extreme contrast situations. In both cases, the sun did set off to the side, but a little behind (not exactly behind the endzone. Another reason why I shot with the sun backlighting the subjects is because I find the results a lit more dramatic.

In this case, I finally was able to fit the guy in the frame entirely. You can see how the light paints just the edges off him, almost like a highlight maker.

Stay tuned, as I have a lot more examples coming of the benefits of shooting with the sun backlighting the subject.