When to Use Backlight Compensation

What is Backlight Compensation?

All cameras and camcorders have trouble shooting when a light source (especially the sun) is directly in front of the lens, lighting the subject from behind. While our eyes can generally adjust to this challenge, even a sensitive camera has trouble with it and will automatically compensate for bright light conditions. This keeps the sun from washing out the image, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making everything else—notably what you’re trying to take a video of—very dark. It can even ruin the video.

Backlight Compensation remedies this by allowing the camcorder to lighten up its subject, removing harsh shadows and dark shading. All it takes is the press of a button in your camcorder’s settings menu.

When to Use Backlight Compensation

Backlight Compensation can be useful in many scenarios. If you find yourself in one of the following conditions and the LCD’s preview image looks dark, you’ll probably want to turn it on.

• Your subject is in front of a window (even on a cloudy day).
• The background is bright and your subject is wearing white, metallic, or otherwise shiny clothing.
• You’re shooting outdoors on an overcast day or with the sun directly behind your subject.
• Your subject’s face is too dark to make out finer features.
• The overall ambient lighting conditions are very bright.
• You’re shooting in snowy conditions (with snow accumulated in the background).

How to Turn on Backlight Compensation

On a Samsung Camcorder like the QF20BN, all you need to do to turn on Backlight Compensation is press the Home button, touch Manual, and touch the Backlight tab. As you’d expect, “On” turns on Backlight Compensation; “Off” switches it off.

Tips for Lighting Your Video Scene

Though it’s great in a pinch, you shouldn’t rely on Backlight Compensation all the time. You’ll get even better results if you properly light your scene before you start shooting. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re getting ready to shoot.

• When shooting outside, keep the sun behind you or to the side.
• To maintain accurate colors, use your camcorder’s white balance feature to compensate for a variety of lighting conditions. On the QF20BN, set white balance for Daylight or Cloudy when outside, Tungsten when shooting under incandescent light, and Fluorescent when under fluorescent bulbs.
• Keep direct sunlight from hitting the camera’s lens. You can do this by shooting from a shady spot, or by holding a shade (a piece of cardboard works fine) over the top of the camera.
• When in doubt, shoot in the early morning or late afternoon. These “magic hours” naturally offer the warmest colors without having to work for them.

For more advice on how to capture great videos, check out our other Camcorder Articles.

Do you have some helpful tips on how to use your camcorder? Share them in the comments below.

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