Half Shade: a backlit fill flash AI photoshoot
Half Shade sets six quiet afternoon frames in a whitewashed apartment, with bright balcony doors behind the person and a faint flash lifting the front. They read like a 1990s holiday album in soft pastels, terracotta tiles underfoot and a lemon tree outside.
Art direction: Alex But
- Camera
- 35 mm autofocus compact
- Lens
- 35 mm
- Aperture
- f/5.6
- Shutter
- 1/125 s
- Film
- ISO 160 color negative
- Light
- Backlight + fill flash
Best for
Six frames from this shoot
Five frames and one detail, made by haloshot from three phone photos of one person.
Frame 1 · Half Shade 
Frame 2 · Half Shade 
Frame 3 · Half Shade 
Frame 4 · Half Shade 
Frame 5 · Half Shade 
Detail · Half Shade
About the fill flash look
Daylight pours through the open doors and draws a soft rim around the shoulders and the fine knit, while the room itself sits in cool open shade. The compact's built-in flash fires at low power in fill mode, raising the front of the person to the room's level with one small catchlight and no shadow on the walls. Its zoom rests at 35 mm, f/5.6 and 1/125 s, on ISO 160 portrait film.
Clothes, place and when to pick it
haloshot gives women a pistachio sweater tucked into a long powder-pink crinkled skirt with a cardigan tied at the waist, and men the same pistachio knit over wide ecru linen trousers; a powder-blue silk scarf and tan strap sandals suit both. Wooden shutters and a long white corridor shape the frames. Pick it for a soft profile photo with your own face.
How it works
Add three photos of yourself: face, half turn and full length. haloshot renders a free five-frame preview of Half Shade with your face. Pick the frames you like and keep them in 4:5 HD.
How to use fill flash with a backlit doorway
Bright daylight sits behind the subject, the compact exposes for that brightness, and a weak fill flash lifts the face to match the shaded room.
- Choose a whitewashed room with balcony doors open to a sunny courtyard in mid-afternoon; pose the subject in the doorway.
- Load Portra 160 in an autofocus zoom compact set to 35 mm, which lands near f/5.6 at 1/125 s.
- Engage fill-flash mode and shoot from 2 to 4 m so the pop adds a catchlight but no wall shadow.
- Hold poses still against door and shutter frames while a linen curtain drifts in the breeze.
Without a fill mode, tape one layer of tissue over the flash to cut its output.
Set notes by Alex But, art director · Updated
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Shoot Half Shade with your face
Three photos in, five free preview frames out. Keep the best ones in HD.