Friday, June 25th, 2010 | Author: *Alex*
This is one of my “formal” attempts at trying silhouette photography.
Thoughts? Opinions? Tips? Anything helps! I think silhouette photographs are spectacular and really want to sharpen my skills.
Wow! I love it! I’m no photographer but I think it’s great!
Nice work!
I likey.
Good JOB!
What kind of camera do you use again?
Thanks!
I have a Pentax K-x
I like it a lot. I’m not actually very good at backlighting and silhouetting though I have been wanting to try it out a bit more.
Hi Alex! That is a super cute picture of the two of them together! I find silhouette photography works best outside, once the sun has sunk beneath the tree line. Right in those precious few minutes where there is still plenty of light in the western sky, but the ambient light on your subjects is greatly diminished. Place your subject against the sky by getting a low angle, then switch to manual mode, pick an aperture that will get you the depth of field you are going for, point the camera into the brightest part of the sky and then adjust your shutter speed until your meter tells you are getting a correct exposure for the sky. Then just leave the settings as they are, point at your subject, focus and snap away.
Some of my fave pics I have done this way:
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/DianaBanana1979/sillhouette1.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/DianaBanana1979/sillhouette2.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/DianaBanana1979/sillhouette3.jpg
Now, if you are outside and it is not an ideal time of day, there is still too much ambient sunlight (which appears to be the case with your photo), then Photoshop is your friend. Here is an example of a silho. picture I took far before the sun went below the tree line. I did it the same way I describe above, but as you can see there is still some detail in the highlights of their clothing:
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/DianaBanana1979/_MG_57792.jpg
So I took it into PS and spent two minutes with the burn tool, getting rid of that detail (and 30 secs. with the clone tool getting rid of the boat that photobombed me, hahaha):
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/tt328/DianaBanana1979/_MG_5779C.jpg
Anyway, I hope this was helpful, and that my description is lucid enough (lol, it is 1am here). If you have any questions regarding reading the camera’s meter in manual, feel free, and you know where to find me ;)
-Diana
P.S. You can also put this method into practice indoors by placing the two of them in front of a window on a bright day. Close all the rest of the curtains to darken the room, in manual – expose for the scene outside the window, recompose and snap!