- What Is Silhouette Photography?
- Tips To Take Amazing Silhouette Shots
- Shoot against the source of light
- Find interesting and unique subjects
- Set exposure manually
- Hide the sun behind your subject
- Look for interesting clouds
- Emphasize silhouettes in post-processing
Silhouette photography is the best way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood in a picture. A silhouette is defined as a view of an object or a scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black.
The basic strategy you’ll need to employ while entering in the field of Silhouette photography 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 its exposure based upon the brightest part of your picture (the background) and not the subject of your image. In doing this your subject will be under exposed (and very dark, if not black).
What Is Silhouette Photography?
Silhouette is a form of photography in which the photographer try to portray a story within his frame by making use of a simple color and the most special thing about Silhouette photography is that the subject has no face. This type of photography is used narrate a story without any protagonist. In my personal opinion Silhouette photography is the best form of photography
Here are some tips to take perfect Silhouette shots —
1. Shoot against the source of light
The human eye has a much larger dynamic range than the sensor of any camera. Our eyes can easily recognize a person standing against the sunset sky, but when you take a photo of the same scene, you’ll get something entirely different.
As long as the source of light is located behind your photography subject, the subject stays in shadow and automatically turns into a silhouette when you take a photo. If you shoot outdoors, it’s essential that the sun is relatively low above the horizon, which is why sunsets, sunrises and winter days at higher latitudes are perfect for silhouette photography.
2. Find interesting and unique subjects
While it’s easy to take silhouette photos, they won’t look good unless you find interesting photography subjects – ones that will really make your photos memorable.
My favorite subjects for silhouettes are other people, followed by birds, trees and human-made structures.
3. Set exposure manually
If your subjects are relatively small and don’t take up a large part of your photo, your smartphone will automatically set exposure for the largest parts of the photo and leave your silhouettes in the dark. But if your subject takes up a large part of the photo, you have to set exposure manually.
You can do this by tapping on the brightest parts of the image outside your subject, which will set exposure (and focus) for that point and also turn your subject into a silhouette as long as the light is coming from behind.
4. Hide the sun behind your subject
When you’re shooting against the sun, you’ll often have issues with the sun blowing out (making white) large parts of your photos. Lens flare can also be a problem when you take photos directly against the sun. While lens flare can sometimes be used for a creative effect, more often than not it’s a good idea to leave the sun out altogether by hiding it directly behind your main subject. If your subject is narrow (such as a standing person), you’ll also get interesting shadows coming towards you. If you then get down on your knees (or lower), you can make these shadows look much larger, which often look great because they lead the viewer’s eye directly towards your subject.
5. Look for interesting clouds
It is particularly important in silhouette photos to be aware of the background that you place your silhouettes against. When using the sky as the background, look for interesting patterns and formations in the clouds to see how you can juxtapose them with your silhouette to create a truly unique photo.
6. Emphasize silhouettes in post-processing
While entire books could be written about post processing, it’s important that your silhouette still stands out afterwards. If you use slider adjustments to edit the photo, it’s a good idea to increase contrast to make the silhouettes stand out more. If you’re using filters, pick ones that don’t make the blacks softer or the highlights darker, which would deemphasize the silhouette.
My suggestion is not to use any filter. Because Filters compressed the picture quality. I recommend to use Snapseed or Lightroom. So, guys the lesson ended here. Hope this will be helpful to everyone. Keep clicking and explore new thing by your smartphone.
