Balance the ambient light

Before you bring in your artificial lighting, it’s best to take a reading of the background (or ambient) light dominating the scene. Expose for this (or even expose a little less to retain more detail) then bring in your light and increase the power incrementally until the model is lit correctly. Sometimes it’s worth taking a shot with your lighting off to see how the background looks. Shooting into backlight can be tricky at first, but does get easier with experience.