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Quick Tip: Creating Silhouettes
By Lynne Eodice | Wisdom and Inspiration |
Jun 25, 2008
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| Gate Detail, L.A. © Lynne Eodice |
Our eyes are immediately drawn to bold, graphic shapes. In photography, the easiest and most effective way to accentuate a shape is by creating a silhouette. You can use this technique to dramatize a subject against a bright background or a colorful sky.
When a subject is strongly backlit, the traditional rule in photography is to set the exposure for the subject and allow the background to be overexposed. But in some situations, you may want to reverse this rule. The effect is especially interesting when simple, distinctive shapes are rendered as totally dark silhouettes against a brightly lit backdrop, and almost appear to be cut out and superimposed. To create this silhouette of wrought-iron figures on a gate in downtown Los Angeles, I moved around until I positioned the sun peeking through one of these figurines. I exposed for the sky so that I would get silhouettes in the foreground, and used a small aperture of f/16 to render the sun as a star.
To create a silhouette, simply position an opaque object in front of a bright background and expose for the background. You may want to experiment with exposures, as a slightly underexposed background may be more saturated and will make the silhouetted shapes stand out even more effectively. Of course, you can always alter this in Photoshop or another image-editing program in post-production. Any bright surface will work as a backdrop: a glittering ocean near sunset, a brightly colored wall, or a colorful sky at dusk.
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| The Grape Crusher © Lynne Eodice |
To get the best results when capturing silhouettes, you’ll probably need to do your homework. It’s rare when you just happen to come across a great subject in the perfect light. You’ll need to use your artist’s eye to find a potentially great background and then hunt around for a suitable foreground subject. Whenever possible, try to scout the location ahead of time—look for elements to silhouette against the sky, sun, or other bright backdrop. If you find a great subject during the middle of the day—as I did with this statue of a grape crusher in California’s Napa Valley—you may want to return at sunset or dusk to shoot a dramatic silhouette. I used an enhancing filter to create an even more colorful sunset sky in the background. I don’t think that this image would have been as interesting had I taken it at midday.
Look for objects that have a bold and simple shape. It’s equally important that the subject be completely surrounded by the bright background. A couple walking on a beach at sunset will produce clearly identifiable shapes, but a crowd of people that are standing too close together may merge into a dark clump.
Exposing for silhouettes is pretty easy. A variety of exposures at sunset will usually give you very good results. Take your exposure from the bright area of the scene (but not directly from the sun) and use your camera’s exposure-lock feature to hold the exposure. After sunset, you can meter the sky itself to get details of its colors or tones, as well as the patterns of the clouds. Anything you have in the foreground will be rendered as a silhouette unless you open your aperture to get more detail or use a flash to illuminate it. The rich royal blue shades or the orange and pink tones of a sky around sunset make beautiful backdrops for all kinds of silhouettes.
Experiment and have fun creating silhouettes—even if your early attempts at capturing silhouettes aren’t what you’re after, keep practicing. You’re bound to capture some dramatic images.
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Last Updated: Jul 10th, 2010 - 16:19:44
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