How to Photograph Silhouettes - Updated
From time to time I take a little time out to go back over old posts to update them. Today I spent a little while reworking one of the early tutorials here at DPS - How to Photograph Silhouettes. I hope you enjoy it (PS: I also started a Silhouettes Assignment over at the forums for you to post your shots in).
I normally talk about the importance of using a flash when taking shots into the sun to give sufficient light to add features to your subject but there are also times when making your subject featureless apart from their outline against a bright background can be most effective - or when in other words silhouette is a worth exploring.
Silhouettes are a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to the viewers of your photos and often stand out in an album because of the combination of their simplicity but also the story that they convey. I love them because they don’t give the viewer of a photo everything and leave part of the image up to their imagination to wonder about.
The basic strategy you’ll need to employ in taking silhouette shots is to place your subject (the shape you want to be blacked out) in front of some source of light and to force your camera to set it’s exposure based upon the brightest part of your picture (the background) and not the subject of your image…… Read the rest of this tutorial
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January 16th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Nice. I’ve got a similar photo to the one in this post.
Link
January 17th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
This is one of my favorite posts. I find the subject matter to be very interesting. It’s funny — it seems like the stuff I like the best is the stuff I’m not really good at. Good reason to keep trying I guess.
January 17th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
A wonderful site, very helpful. Though all the experts here might having amazing SLRs and DSLRs, the tips you provide are useful for me, eventhough I have a simply Sony DSC P100.
Thank you guys.
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 am
Great…. thanks
June 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I’m just wondering when is the right time of the day to shoot silhouettes?I tried during sunset and it works well. It is also possible during the morning?