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 the 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 this challenge, we want to see some perfectly executed backlight, and images with rim-light that really add the separation and give the Glow-Up feeling.

Here, in no particular order, are our top 10 images. Congratulations to the photographers, fantastic work.

Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

Amy Hodson | Wander Pet Photography

Great pose, and the use of leading lines in the composition is excellent. The tones on the dog looks good and the backlight outline is right on brief for this challenge.

Desiree Nickerson | Born 2 Run Photography

This is so soft and whimsical, the tree in the foreground acts as a great frame, pose, expression and rim light are all beautifully executed.

Dianne Willemsen 

This is so warm and cosy feeling. The edit of the white fur is spot on. the rimlight is really subtle and beautifully handled.

Eva Duerkop 

Stunning pose and expression, fantastic use of the loction and a complete rim-lit silhouette of the dog.

Gabriela Ciobanu | LightStories

There is so much personality here! Great texture in the fur and the grass catching the light in the background is reminiscent of the light catching the whiskers. 

Helen Daniels | Not Just A Dog Photography

What a wonderful expression, great composition. The light behind and in front of the dog are well balanced.

Kris Brown

A fantastic moment of action captured super sharply in gorgeous light make this a really striking Glow-Up.

Lori Cegon | Lori Cegon Photography

Fantastic leading lines coming into the dog from the lavender. Beautiful relaxes expression and the Glow-Up on the dogs head is perfect!

Patricia Mattes | Patty Mattes Photography

Fantastic composition, led by the dog's pose. The rim-light is complete around the entire silhouette of the dog and the colour balance is perfect!

Teran Buckner | Phido Photography

The rays of light made more visible by the dark location give a spotlight to the dog and its joyous expression. A really fantastic rimlit outline around the dog fits the Glow-Up challenge perfectly.

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 April 2024.