Backlighting is one of the terms aspiring filmmakers learn early on in their education. And not only them. Recently, I heard a podcast where a guest – an expert on communication – recommended that listeners set up three-point lighting for important Zoom calls in order to stand out from their peers. Yet, the backlight in film goes beyond creating depth and separating the objects in a frame. It is a known tool that can steer the viewer’s attention, create a specific atmosphere, and aid the story. How? Let’s analyze.
As the name suggests, backlighting is a lighting technique where a light source is placed behind a subject and is facing the camera. There are variations to this setup: Sometimes, the backlight can come slightly from above, and other times – it is placed at eye level. If you move it a bit to the side, it becomes a “kicker,” and we’ll talk about this term further below. The general principle stays the same, though: we have light rays wrapping the object or subject from behind and heading in the direction of the camera.
Why backlighting?
What is backlight good for? Several things. Above all, by illuminating the subject from behind, the backlight creates a rim of light that outlines its edges. This outline defines the subject’s shape and separates it from the background. In our MZed course “Introduction to Lighting,” seasoned filmmaker Ollie Kenchington demonstrates how little it actually takes to make a big difference.
Images source: Ollie Kenchington / MZed 
You see how even a low-intensity backlight spot in this example literally “cuts out” the participant. Although in the second image, he doesn’t wear a light-colored vest anymore, we can clearly separate him from the other people in the room and from the background. Of course, it also helps that a bright key light falls on his face, drawing our attention to him. Yet the visual separation happens thanks to the backlight.
Introduction to Lighting
Learn how to harness the power of light to shape depth, composition, and emotion in your visuals. This course dives into techniques like shading for three-dimensionality, backlighting and much more. Uncover the secrets of lighting that elevate storytelling, turning ordinary scenes into compelling narratives.
Light also creates depth in an image as part of a three-point lighting setup. We have already discussed the fact that film and video are two-dimensional media usually watched on flat screens. Light is a strong helping hand in shaping objects and subjects in the frame and making them feel more realistic and immersive.
Where to place your backlight?
In a classic three-point lighting setup for interviews, Ollie Kenchington suggests placing the backlight almost directly behind and slightly above the subject. Not too high, though – otherwise, it can spill onto the forehead or even clip the nose. Moreover, if your protagonist has a bald head, you should also be careful with reflections.
When you take the backlight and move it slightly to one side, it turns into something that Ollie calls “kicker” – for instance, a three-quarter light from behind. At some point, a kicker can start to spill across the face. There are scenes when you want it and those when you don’t.
These are not set-in-stone rules but rather what you can find as a classic approach when it comes to backlighting. However, as we all know, rules are there to break them. Once we let go of the three-point lighting idea, interesting things start to happen. Namely, backlight gets its own narrative voice in film.
Using backlight in film for storytelling
The idea that light has its own storytelling power is not new. (Head over here if you want to read more about it). Sometimes, light can even become a character. A great example on a bigger scale is the film “Sunshine” with Cillian Murphy, but it is somewhat metaphorical. Instead, let’s take a look at a particular scene from Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” In the MZed course “The Language of Lighting,” cinematographer and educator Tal Lazar gives it as an example of how filmmakers play with the audience’s expectations.
Film stills from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” by Steven Spielberg, 1977 
Electric utility lineman Roy Neary sits in his car when a pair of headlights approach him from the back for the second time in this scene. Yet, suddenly, the source starts to behave weirdly. It moves upwards and drastically raises the intensity. That’s the first time Roy encounters aliens, but he directly understands that something otherworldly is happening. And so do we. No creatures, no prosthetics, no special effects. The story is told through the backlight and its movement.
Another example that comes to my mind is the birth scene from the dystopian action movie “Children of Men:”
As Kee gives birth to a girl, the dim, flickering backlight creates a holy, almost biblical glow around the newborn. It’s just a small practical source, but we can interpret a lot from it. Common knowledge suggests that this small lamp behind the baby symbolizes hope in a bleak world, and it reinforces the film’s theme of rebirth.
Dramatic effects and silhouettes
What if we used backlight as our key, eliminating all other sources? This approach would create a high dramatic contrast, wouldn’t it? Speaking of contrast, we can’t avoid mentioning the term Chiaroscuro.
Chiaroscuro lighting is a technique that uses strong light and deep shadows to create drama, depth, and mystery in film. Borrowed from Renaissance painters like Caravaggio, it highlights certain areas while plunging others into darkness. In film, it helps to build tension and makes characters look more intense or mysterious. Think of Batman emerging from the shadows: backlight hides his face from us and from misfits while his silhouette is dramatically illuminated.
A film still from “The Batman” by Matt Reeves, 2022 
The second example in the gallery above is how cinematographer Roger Deakins uses backlight in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” What do you feel when you see this simple yet intense shot? Suspense, drama, maybe even fear? We recognize zero characters’ facial expressions, but the backlight and frame’s high contrast make us subconsciously understand that something bad is happening.
No wonder that, at some point, shooting silhouettes against the heightened backlight became a visual cliché for enhancing the drama and intensity of the scene. Just look at the duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”
Sun as your backlight
Does the word “cliché” mean we should stop using backlight like this? No, I don’t think so. After all, we can always enjoy the magical vibes of the sunset, even though the sun goes below the horizon every single day.
That’s actually another way to get a beautiful backlight. Namely, by using the sun as your source. An Oscar-nominated movie that does this often and is famous for its naturalistic cinematography is “Nomadland.”
If you have seen this movie, then you know that many of its scenes unfold around the extremes of the day: the sunrise and the sunset. Why? Because it’s the kind of natural light that is most pleasing to our eye. But also because it creates an unexplainable feeling of sadness in us. If you want to learn more about this, we dive into the wonders of “Nomadland’s” naturalistic approach in this article.
Two backlights in one setup?
The modern filmmaking convention is all about emulating light. This means that our lighting should feel as authentic as possible. For instance, if you put a harsh backlight in your shot and then jump 180 degrees to a reverse shot, the previous source should turn into a frontal light. In that case, both frames can’t have only a backlight. It won’t be realistic, right?
Logically speaking, yes. Storytelling-wise, well. There is a mesmerizing scene in Robert Eggers’s latest film, “Nosferatu,” that breaks this logic entirely and abandons it altogether.
Film stills from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
For one, this is a film about a famous vampire, so it doesn’t have to obey the laws of our reality. Secondly, this scene has a dreamlike quality to it. As cinematographer Jarin Blaschke explains, they wanted to create an archetypal “meet-the-devil-at-the-crossroads” moment, and it just wouldn’t work if they used anything except the contrast backlight and the moonlight. Last but not least, both the shot and the reverse shot look amazing. They give you goosebumps, especially when you watch this scene on a big cinema screen. Isn’t that part of why we love films in the first place? For the visceral experience?
So, the backlight in film is not just a vital part of the classical three-point lighting schema. It’s so much more! What are your favorite creative examples of using it? How do you play with backlight in your projects? Let’s talk more about it in the comments below!
Feature image source: combined film stills from “Children of Men” by Alfonso Cuarón, 2006; “The Batman” by Matt Reeves, 2022; and “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” by Irvin Kershner, 1980.
Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD.
