Silhouette Photography

Cloudy London Eye. Taken in London, England. May 20, 2011. Nikon Coolpix P500, exposure low- ered. 

def: making your subject featureless apart from their outline against a bright background. This technique can be used to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to viewers.

Technique:

- Silhouettes are achieved by placing a subject in front of a source of light and forcing the camera to set its exposure based upon the brightest part of the background and not the subject of your image. This creates underexposed, black mostly, subjects. 

- The best silhouettes are subjects that are recognizable in shape and that are interesting enough in their two dimensional form and that are distinct (for example the London Eye to the left and the Santorini windmills below). 

- Subjects are best if kept separate if more than one. 

- Frame the image so that you’re shooting in front of a bright background. 

- The best light is in front of a sunset or sunrise, because you want the light on the back of your subject and not on the front. Essentially you want more light shining from the background than the foreground. 

- In auto mode most cameras auto adjust the exposure. If this isn’t getting the right effect, hold the shutter half down at the brightest part of the scene and and don’t lift until you have moved the camera to the subject so that the camera won’t automatically light up the subject. This way it will think the brightest part of the image is mid tone and everything else will be a dark shadow. 

- In manual mode it’s best to stop the shutter speed a bit. 

- You also want the subject to be in focus, so you can use a small aperture to maximize depth of field (the amount of image that is in focus).  

Single Windmill. Taken in Santorini, Greece. July 1, 2011. Nikon Coolpix P500.

Three Windmills. Taken in Santorini, Greece. July 1, 2011. Nikon Coolpix P500.

Villa Silhouette. Taken in Vicenza, Italy. June 20, 2011. Nikon Coolpix P500.

 Citations:

Rowse, D. How to Photograph Silhouettes in 8 Easy Steps. Retrieved from http://www.digital-photog- raphy-school.com/how-to-photograph-silhouettes
Leung, T. Silhouette Photography. Retrieved from http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/silhouette- photography/.