BACKLIGHTING
Another characteristic feature of Ladislav Sitenský's photographic work is the depiction of scenes in backlighting. These are mostly photographs set against the sun, or indoors against another light source. The light might be directly towards the photographer, or coming slightly from the side, the light source may or may not be visible in the photograph. Photographs of this type tend to have a high level of contrast and deep shadows. People against the light often have only a light contour and long, dark, slanted shadows. We are usually not used to observing scenes in this way, so photographs of this type tend to have a very impressive light atmosphere. Working with backlighting thus allows the photographer to add character to otherwise not very interesting motifs. Especially in the case of black-and-white photographs, backlighting can be an important compositional element — the composition of a black-and-white image uses lines, shapes and tones much more than colour photography.
Backlit photography places increased demands on the technique of the image. Light that falls directly into the lens of the camera creates mostly unwanted reflections on the lenses and inner surfaces of the lens and can thus cover the whole image with an unwanted haze. Ladislav Sitenský often even took pictures with full sun directly in the frame. He deliberately chose older, less segmented lenses to do this — he said that if he went towards the "sun" with a simple Tessar lens, he would get better results than with modern lenses, which have multiple anti-reflex layers, but are mostly composed of multiple optical elements.