Backlight

Light coming from behind a subject. Or, to create this effect.see thumbnail to rightThese photographs and the pictures below present examples of backlit subjects. English speakers sometimes use the equivalent in French, contre jour.If you're looking at a computer monitor right now, the entire screen is an example of a backlit image.Further examples: Georg Balthasar Probst (German, 1732-1801), after P. van Blankaert, after Johannes Nieuhof (Netherlands, 1618-72), Le dedans du palais de l'Empereur de Chine ? Peking (View of the Imperial Chinese Palace in Beijing), 1766-90, etching, engraving, watercolor, and gouache, 12 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches, Getty Research Institute, Malibu, CA. This is one of 22 objects in the Devices of Wonder exhibit catalogued online by the Getty Museum ? best seen with Flash and RealAudio plugins.