There something pretty cool about a silhouette photo. When done well it can look awesome and leave you feeling like a hero.
But done poorly it can look off and leave you feeling your photography has gone backwards.
It’s kind of like a painting that’s hanging on the wall but it tilts too far to the left. If you have a little OCD in you like me it can leave you with a sore head.
So here are a few tips to get the best silhouette possible.
1) The first thing you really to focus on is getting your exposure right. You want to make sure you are exposing for the brightest part of the picture.
Generally it would be something in the background such as the sun or the brightness part of a blue sky.
Otherwise if you expose for the darker areas, the background could be too bright and your cool silhouette can turn into a bright mess.
2) Framing is key as far as you want your cool silhouette unobstructed by something else in the background.
So you may have to lay on the ground or move a little to the left or right to get some great separation of the shapes.
If not, it can give you the unstraightened painting kind of sore head we spoke about. So keep your shapes separated. A good and bad example just here.
3) Lastly you want to have fun and experiment with things you enjoy to photograph. When you nail a good silhouette picture and it’s something you enjoy, the hero feeling that you’ll get can become addictive.
I’ve always been a big basketball fan, so I really enjoyed shooting this basketball ring right on sunrise over Cronulla beach. If I wasn’t into basketball I’d probably keep walking straight past it. So it definitely helps if it’s a subject you enjoy.
Photography is the best hobby in the world so I hope these tips help you to enjoy it a little more too!
Til next time
Chris
Chasing Light by Chris Lane 