All right all you photo enthusiasts, this week we’re gonna get a little technical for our photo of the week. Here’s the challenge: How do you make Alberto Salazar appear as though he has just descended from the heavens on an intergalactic quest to make American distance runners slightly more competitive—without making him look like the disgruntled DMV employee that his facial expression would suggest? The answer is: put a halo of light behind him, then using fill-flash (that’s the word of the day) light up his face at the same time!

Not only does this look cool, but you can do it yourself. It’s easier to do with a little more sophisticated gear than your average point and shoot, but some cameras may have presets for the effect. I’ll explain how to do it if you have a camera with manual settings and an external flash. You’ll also need a bright light source (like a sunset), which will create the halo.

Here’s how it goes: Have your subject stand in front of the sun/bright light so that it looks like the light source is emanating from behind the subject’s head. Set your camera (on it’s manual setting) to expose for the background (the sunset behind the person). This is where the external flash comes in. Without a flash, the person’s face would be completely dark because the camera is set to expose for the very bright background. To balance the background and foreground, point your external flash directly at the subject’s face. Using ½ power as a starting point, experiment with changing the flash’s power until the both the background and the subject’s face are each exposed correctly.

And that’s how you make Alberto look epic. Nice find Greenville Runners Club!