"In the Weeds"

"In the Weeds"

This image is a good illustration of the interesting effects you can get shooting in mixed lighting conditions.

Shot late in the evening along a rural roadside it combines elements of backlighting and mixed color balances. 

Backlighting is a technique that can be used very effectively to highlight the main subject in a photo from a darker background.

The rich greens in the foreground are a result of the warm (colored) evening sun backlighting the weeds while the cooler blues are a result of having no direct sunlight hitting the background, which is largely in shadow.

This image is basically "straight from the camera" with minimal post processing in Nikon CaptureNX.