How to shoot silhouette photography

Most photographers have been guilty of spotting a great sunset and hastily composing an image with a silhouette in the foreground to add some interest and scale.

It doesn’t take long to realise that a bit more thought is required to create a memorable shot.

They may be completely black, but because the detail is stripped away the size, shape and position of the foreground objects is incredibly important.

SEE MORE: Silhouette photography: tips for shooting into the sun

The basics

Creating a silhouette requires a high contrast scene; a bright background and a dark foreground subject. This means that silhouettes can be shot on bright sunny days, at sunrise or sunset or at night when there’s a large light source.

It can be as simple as shooting a landscape scene through trees, or an object against a spectacular sunset.

Exposure should be set so that the dark foreground is black while the brighter background is correctly exposed, erring towards making it a midtone to bring out any colour and allow the silhouetted subject to be suitably dark.

This means that in many situations the shutter speed can be set to a value that allows the camera to be handheld.

SEE MORE: Sunset photography – how to balance exposures and get accurate colours

Metering

If the bright part of the scene is very large, some cameras will deliver what you’re looking for when the general purpose Evaluative/Matrix/Multizone metering system is used.

However, many cameras weight the exposure towards that required by the subject under the active AF point, and if that’s a dark part of the scene that you want to be black, you are likely to get an overexposed image.

If this happens, adjust the exposure using the exposure compensation control or switch to manual exposure mode to produce the result you are looking for. Centreweighted or spotmetering mode can be useful for taking light measurements from the brighter part of the scene.

The spotmeter will suggest exposure settings that render it a midtone, which may be what you are looking for, but if not, you’ll have to increase the exposure a little.

SEE MORE: How to shoot a silhouette: compose, shoot and fine-tune graphic images

Do some research

The sky at sunrise or sunset can make an excellent backdrop for a silhouette, and while these events tend to be more dramatic and at slightly more convenient times during spring and autumn, they don’t tend to last for very long.

This means its a good idea to do a little research and find good locations during normal daylight hours. If you don’t know it already, the first step is to work out the direction in which the sun will rise or set.

Once you’ve got this sorted you can start looking for objects that will make good silhouettes. You need to look for bold shapes that are easily recognisable and that having nothing but sky in the background from your intended shooting location.

Trees are a classic subject, as are cranes and skyscrapers, but don’t limit yourself to these. You don’t have to rely on fixed subjects for silhouettes, you can create your own.

People can make superb subjects and it’s worth spending a little time looking at a potential model considering the angle to shoot them from. Profile shots which reveal the contours of the face can work very well.

SEE MORE: 6 ways to work a window for perfect natural light portraits

Bright lights, big city

At night cities can make good venues for shooting silhouettes. Illuminated advertising and brightly lit buildings can make excellent backgrounds and commuters, statues and everyday objects can make interesting silhouettes.

As mentioned earlier, as it’s more important to make the subject dark and retain the detail of the highlights in the background, it’s usually possible to use shutter speeds that allow the camera to be handheld – even at night.

The post How to shoot silhouette photography appeared first on Digital Camera World.