What does the "backlight" function on my camcorder do?

What does the "backlight" function on my camcorder do?

Tim Smith (Camcorder Training Specialist) gives expert video advice on: What does the "spotlight" function on my camcorder do?; Should I use my camcorder's "widescreen" mode?; Do consumer camcorders have slow-motion capabilities? and more...

You may find that you have a button called BLC on your camcorder. Essentially what that means is backlight control. Backlight control is really for when the lighting behind the subject is brighter than the light on the subject and your subject ends up being silhouetted because the exposure is improper. Engaging the backlight button, or the BLC button, usually shifts it by what's called two f-stops. It brightens up the foreground a little bit, darkens the background a little bit and tries to give you much more even exposure under some pretty challenging lighting conditions.