silhouettes guide
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SHORT GUIDE:
SHOOTING
SILHOUETTESBY JASON D. LITTLE
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5/21/2018 Silhouettes Guide
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Silhouettes>>P.03
The Beauty of Silhouettes >>P.05
7 Key Points to Shooting Great Silhouettes>>P.07
Choose a Suitable Subject
Set Up Your Lighting
Pose Your Subject and Frame the Shot
Prepare Your Camera for the Shot
Focus
Post Processing
Optional Tools
Final Thoughts >>P.13
Some Inspiration >>P.15
CONTENTS
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SILHOUETTES
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We spend an awful lot of time and anxious energy fretting overhow to light our subjects; specifically, we tend to fear shadows.Hard shadows can ruin nearly any photograph. Whether wereshooting portraits, macros, or products, we typically aim forsoft, even lighting.
The fact is, however, we all need a break from the norm; weneed to take advantage of opportunities to do things a differentway. Those beautifully lit portraits that we all seek to make areimportant; they may even be the staple of your photographicrepertoire. But there is another way to think about lighting away that is, perhaps, counterintuitive but can be equally, if notmore, evocative as any perfectly lit shot.
Portrait photographers know of Rembrandt lighting, splitlighting, butterfly lighting, and all styles of lighting designed tolight the front of the subject. But what about backlighting?
SILHOUETTES
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THE BEAUTY OFSILHOUETTES
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A silhouette: that dark, featureless subject outlined againsta bright background a photographic phenomenon createdby backlighting; a photographic phenomenon that is capableof conveying mood, drama, mystery and emotion in ways un-matched by more conventional portraiture. Silhouettes are in-credibly simple in form, yet they possess a great deal of aesthet-
ic and atmospheric power.
They impart that power to the viewer by giving us the freedomto further use our imagination as we interpret these images.
Fortunately, silhouettes are also relatively easy to create. Thetips that follow will help you get started.
THE BEAUTY OF SILHOUETTES
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7 KEY POINTS TO
SHOOTING GREATSILHOUETTES
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1. Choose a Suitable Subject -Suitable is admittedly a
rather open-ended term; indeed, anything can be made intoa silhouette, but some simply work better than others. Bold,distinctly shaped forms separated from their surroundings tendto work best.
2. Set Up Your Lighting - Theres actually nothing to set uphere. Your flash serves no use for this project; in fact, all thatstuff you learned previously in your photography education
about how to light a subject is off the table. The goal is to putthe light completely behind your subject; you dont want anylight falling on their front side.
The very best way to go about this is to position your subjectin front of a rising or setting sun. The sun isnt an absolutemust, however; any light source that is large enough and brightenough will do.
3. Pose Your Subject and Frame the Shot -If youreworking with a person, be sure to pose them in an open areaor in such a way that doesnt cause them to blend in withsurrounding objects. Furthermore, try to avoid photographingpeople straight-on; instead, photograph their profile. This willmake their features more distinct and more recognizable.
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH SILHOUETTES
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4. Prepare Your Camera for the Shot -Shooting in manualmode is the ideal method of creating a silhouette. Again, youwill probably find that the process goes against the grain ofwhat youre used to as you expose for the background and notthe subject.
Quite simply, this is how you get a dark foreground and abright background a silhouetted image. If you find that light
is spilling over onto the front of your subject, just underexposethe background and your subject will become increasinglydarker.
You can accomplish this in auto mode as well. The trick is tokeep the camera from doing what it does so well metering ascene for even lighting. To prevent this, point your camera atthe brightest portion of the sky and press the shutter button
half way to initiate the metering process.
Then, with your finger still on the shutter button, move thecamera back to your subject and take the shot.
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH SILHOUETTES
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Use autofocus to
achieve initial focus and
lock it in, then switch your
lens to manual so you dontaccidentally lose your
focus setting.
This method works the majority of the time, but if you want tobe a bit more precise you should use spot metering, if yourcamera possesses that feature. Spot metering will allow you tometer for a very specific part of the frame (the background in
this instance), thereby increasing the accuracy of your desiredexposure.
Either approach can lead to successful silhouettes. Use the onethat youre most comfortable with or whichever works out bestfor you. Given that all youve got is a memory card to erase asopposed to rolls of film to buy, you can experiment as much asyou want or need to.
5. Focus -The subject needs to be in sharp focus in order foryour silhouette to have definition. How to get the subject infocus may not be so straightforward considering the meteringsteps discussed above. The camera will have to focus on thebackground in order to take a meter reading, which means thatfocus wont be accurate when you move back to your subject.
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There are a couple of ways to tackle this problem:
Use manual focus to re-focus on your subject after youve
metered the shot, or pre-focus before you meter.
Set a small aperture (larger f-number-, f/8 or f/11, for ex-ample) to increase depth of field, which will increase the
odds that your subject is clearly defined.
6. Post Processing -As always, what you do in this phaseis entirely up to you. Its likely, however, that you will want toboost shadows, blacks, contrast, and clarity; these adjustmentswill help define the subject more clearly. A small bump tovibrancye and saturation might be useful as well, just to addsome pop to the background;, especially if the background is acolorful sunrise or sunset.
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7. Optional Tools -Making a silhouette really only requiresyour camera, your subject, and a bright background. But if youhappen to be working in a particularly low light situation wherea slow shutter speed is necessary, then a tripod will certainlycome in handy. And, if you like, you can use a circular polarizerto create more contrast and saturation for the background.
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH SILHOUETTES
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FINAL THOUGHTS
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While the basic process will remain the same, your specificcamera settings will probably be different for each silhouetteyou shoot because subject and lighting conditions wont beidentical on each occasion; so again, we see the luxury thatdigital photography has afforded us we can adapt andexperiment with no limits.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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SOME INSPIRATION
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As you begin to think about and prepare for shootingsilhouettes of your own, well leave you with some images toinspire you.
SOME INSPIRATION
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IMAGE CREDITS:
Cover : Muha...
Pg 04 : SeanPg 06 : kevin dooley
Pg 08 : Kamal Zharif
Pg 09 : Luz Adriana Villa APg 11 : Hamed SaberPg 12 : Paulo BrandoPg 14 : The U.S. ArmyPg 14 : Muha...
Pg 16 : VramakPg 16 : girish_suryawanshiPg 17 :jDevaunPg 18 : Tico photography.Pg 19 : VramakPg 20 : Sainaa photography
FONTS:
Ovo
MontserratRokkitt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jason D. Little is a photographer
(shooting macros, portraits,candids, and the occasionallandscape), part time writer, andfull time lover of music.
You can see Jasons photographyon his photography blogor onFlickr.
http://www.photzy.com/http://www.flickr.com/photos/muha/1016691310/http://www.flickr.com/photos/90483352@N00/96795910/in/photolist-9y741http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/3191664147/http://www.flickr.com/photos/muslimpage/3641641090/http://www.flickr.com/photos/luchilu/2183156848/http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/249497869/http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulobrandao/2657417533/http://www.flickr.com/photos/35703177@N00/3046353112/in/photolist-5DcmDw-65za4y-6f5Kxc-6zGE4h-8Nr94B-8cGajX-bGtkMHhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/muha/1016691310/http://www.flickr.com/photos/87884524@N00/3499502280/in/photolist-6keS7dhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/djgary/6572564669/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34316967@N04/7541170982/in/photolist-cuotpmhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/62744172@N05/7422523762/in/photolist-ciUnHC-d9huZAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/vramak/3920805766/http://www.flickr.com/photos/sainaa/3774747646/http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Ovohttp://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Montserrathttp://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Rokkitthttp://jdevaunphotographynow.wordpress.com/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34316967%40N04/sets/72157623545514698/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34316967%40N04/sets/72157623545514698/http://jdevaunphotographynow.wordpress.com/http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Rokkitthttp://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Montserrathttp://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Ovohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sainaa/3774747646/http://www.flickr.com/photos/vramak/3920805766/http://www.flickr.com/photos/62744172@N05/7422523762/in/photolist-ciUnHC-d9huZAhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/34316967@N04/7541170982/in/photolist-cuotpmhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/35449761%40N04/9685115683/http://www.flickr.com/photos/djgary/6572564669/http://www.flickr.com/photos/87884524@N00/3499502280/in/photolist-6keS7dhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/muha/1016691310/http://www.flickr.com/photos/35703177@N00/3046353112/in/photolist-5DcmDw-65za4y-6f5Kxc-6zGE4h-8Nr94B-8cGajX-bGtkMHhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/paulobrandao/2657417533/http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/249497869/http://www.flickr.com/photos/elavamu/4487478745/http://www.flickr.com/photos/luchilu/2183156848/http://www.flickr.com/photos/muslimpage/3641641090/http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/3191664147/http://www.flickr.com/photos/90483352@N00/96795910/in/photolist-9y741http://www.flickr.com/photos/muha/1016691310/http://www.photzy.com/ -
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