Working with natural light, especially on a bright sunny day can be challenging at times. However, the resulting warm and engaging portraits created from shooting in afternoon sunshine make it all worthwhile.

Backlighting your subject is a beautiful way to separate them from the background, giving your images an instant glow-up.

So for the Glow Up challenge, we were looking for some gorgeous rim light and well-balanced exposures.

Boy, do we have some wonderful sun-drenched images for you to feast your eyes on in this weeks top 10!

Congratulations to the photographers who created these.

- Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

Alison Yeo | Alikat Dog Photography

Gorgeous toes, the dog looks great and is framed really nicely by the trees behind it. A beautiful golden glow-up.

Angela Rose | Angie Rose Photography

Golden retrievers in the golden light of winter. Beautifully composed and great eye contact with the dogs and the rim light is excellent.

Cindy Van Osch | Paws and Memories Dog Photography

This image has a really subdued colour palette while still retaining that backlit, sun-drenched feeling. Lovely use of layers to create depth too.

Jana Davis | J's Photography

An adorable puppy with a gorgeous golden glow-up. Lovely subdued palette and great expression and catchlights.

Julie Addison | Look Back and Smile

The sun has been diffused/filters slightly differently in this shot, through the clouds. And it works really well to add that warm backlit glow we were looking for in the Glow-Up challenge.

Katy Robertson 

Beautiful black and white fur, some lovely light coming from behind aking the flowers sparkle and the balance of light falling on the front of the dog is great with nice catchlights in the eyes.

Megan O'Hehir

You can feel the warmth in this shot. The pose works really well with the centred composition and the little blur in the foreground adds a bit of extra sparkle.

Nancy Paynter

Gorgeous backlit image with lots of tiny details that really make it something special. The soft warmth, the curve, the transition from dark to light and the wind in the dogs hair all contribute to its success.

Nicole Crystal | Pooch Pix

The toning and editing treatment of this are gorgeous. The dog is so perfectly outlined by the rimlight and the sparkle of light on the grasses leading to the bokeh in the distance really create depth in the image.

Stephanie Dalman | Boxers & Beer Photography

Aside from the gorgeous light coming from behind the dog, the pose really makes this shot. Looking back on itself and the curve of the tail all keep your eye circling around that central subject.

Embark is made up of 12 challenges over 6 months and is the first interactive course in the Unleashed Challenges series.

Much more than just a challenge, Embark is an invaluable educational resource that will help you build up a go-to list of shots to help create variety in your work. Designed for anyone to be able to complete whether you just want to photograph your own dog or you are a professional pet photographer.

If you'd like to know more head over here to register your interest and we'll send you all the details when enrollment next opens in 2022.