Silhouette photos are classic, and fun images that can really add to your portfolio. Although they can seem daunting, with these easy steps you can easily take the perfect silhouette.
1. Time of Day
Although you can technically take a silhouette at any point of the day the best time is during sunset. This not only helps to softly backlight your images but it creates a vibrant and colourful backdrop.
2. Background Space
When taking your silhouette it is important that you have enough background space. You can create space by thinking about your composition and shooting low and pointing upwards slightly. Your lens choice will also affect the amount of background space you have, a 24mm or 35mm is a great choice.
3. Settings
In order to create a silhouette, your background needs to be brighter than your subject. Expose for the sky, and shoot at a higher aperture such as 5.6 to ensure your subjects still appear in focus. From there you can adjust your shutter speed until your subjects appear dark.
4. Posing
It is important that your subjects have space in between them so that you are able to differentiate between them and viewers can identify who/what they are. If subjects are too close together and they lack space they can appear as one dark blob.
5. Editing
To help your image pop through editing start by deepening the blacks and boosting the vibrancy. The rest is up to you and your personal taste!
There you have it, 5 simple steps to taking the perfect silhouette image.
We would love to see what you create so make sure you share with us on
Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest. Happy Shooting! xx
