Giving Natural Light a boost with OCF

I really liked the light in this location and how it rimmed my son but left lots of shadows. This image shows the natural light when the flash was not firing. The sun was behind the trees in the background and to the right of the image.

I wanted to recreate a similar light setup but add a bit of pop with my flash and I also wanted to underexpose my background to add even more drama.

I increased my shutter speed in order to darken the background. The image below is my "base layer". I always try to capture a shot like so that I can easily remove my light out of the final image. 

My first attempt in light placement added way too much light to the front of my son but I did like the background exposure.

I had my husband step back behind my son so that we could mimic the direction of the natural light.

For the final image, I merged my base layer shot with the flash image so that I could quickly remove my husband and light.

This is a simple way to recreate natural light in any situation where it may need a little boost. For me, it is very important to try and build the habit of always taking a base layer image with no light so that I can easily erase the light in post.

Let me know if you have any questions!

-Happy creating.

-Leah