Every photographer yearns to capture that perfect silhouette at sunset. I am personally so obsessed with sunsets that whenever I see one, my imaginations lead me to start framing the skyline or horizons against the orange background, all in my mind even if my camera is miles away. According to Vivek Naidu, a photographer and a studio owner in Pune, a silhouette is an artistic way of expression for photographers just like creative writing is for writers. It is a simple art form yet millions of silhouette portraits later, the field is still fresh to be explored.
Photo by agnibesh sengupta / Fotosocial
In photography, a silhouette is a dark outline of a person, an object, or a scene against a bright background. A silhouette can be achieved by utilizing natural light or by lighting the background with artificial light. The sun is the most commonly used source of light with sunset being the most common phenomenon used.
Getting ready for the shoot
There is no magic involved in capturing a backlit silhouette portrait. Many times great silhouettes are achieved by luck and not by sheer preparation. However, a photographer cannot ride on lady luck and so even for a silhouette, one needs to learn how to go about it.
To start with, you will need a place where a silhouette can be achieved. It is easy to create such a setup with the help of artificial studio light but the effect won’t be as great as it is with natural light. If you can venture on the sea shores or scenic landscapes at sunset, start with an open door of your house when there is ample light outside. Ask your friends to pose as models and take different poses, placing the camera at different locations.
Basically, you don’t need to crack your head with camera settings. At times, you can get great silhouetted even with auto settings. However, for perfection’s sake, you should set your camera at Aperture Priority mode and use ISO: 100 or something close to that since there will be a lot of light involved. Set the white balance to custom to avoid unwanted colors in the final photograph. For the aperture, don’t work with very low ranges or very high as this may blur important details in your frame. In fact, anything from f/5.6 to f/16 will work, depending on your lenses and your camera type.
Photo by agnibesh sengupta / Fotosocial
The techniques
There are a few things you need to consider in taking backlit silhouette portraits. To start with, remember light plays a big role in this type of photography. Many photographers fail to get perfect backlit silhouette portraits because there was too much light falling on the image. When I say too much I don’t mean too much that it makes your subject lose the dark hue. At times the amount of light is not that much of a distraction when viewed on your camera LCD screen but it may shock you with grayish silhouettes instead of black ones later on when viewed on computer. Avoid all sought of reflection on your subjects that may spoil a perfect silhouette.
Don’t forget the rule of thirds. If you are photographing people subjects, using portrait mode will give you better results. Do not be tempted to put the subject at the dead center of your frame unless you really have to.
Sometimes the camera may adjust the light thinking you are making a mistake by letting your subject be too dark. To deal with this limitation, you may focus the camera on the bright portion or you can use Exposure Compensation and bringing it to 2 to 3 stops.
Photo by Bosco Rocky / Fotosocial
Final take
It’s a great feeling to take perfect dark silhouette portrait, but if you can get one that has the background well exposed with details and colors clear on the canvas, then to will climb to the pro level! This is not easy but achievable. You will need lots of tries, patience and of course a bit of luck to reach there. Good luck!
 |
 |
 |
Quick read:
|
||
 |
 |
 |
| <Prev | Next> |
|---|
