Illumination from behind

Back lighting is: anticipation (it keeps you on the edge), make the subject un-visible because the light is blocked by the subject, perhaps creepy and frightening

Back lighting is also used in horror films; they keep you on your toes because you are not able to tell who the character is or be able to interpret their mood.

David: Is it really my brother? After seeing so many pictures of my brother, it is much easier to tell it is him because of many similarities (that's his hair, he still has the white t-shirt on, etc). However, if I hadn't shown you previous pictures of David, would you have been able to ID this person? The lighting only shows vague details of his face (you can tell his eyes, nose and mouth are there, however, they are not lit well enough to fully give up the description of the person), and gives only a silihoutte of the figure.

Duck:In this picture with my duck being attacked, can you tell who the attacker is? Here's a hint: it's not Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. Again, the familiar similarities of my brother give his identity away. However, again, what if I hadn't shown you any previous pictures of him. It would be hard to ID the attacked.Back lighting is often used like in this picture to keep the identity of a mysterious character secret.

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