How To Photograph Silhouettes

I received a lot of positive feedback on the above shot from my sunflower field session, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to show you how I capture silhouettes.

First: turn off your flash and ditch the reflectors. This is one situation where you’re not going to need to expose your subject.  Remember this post on backlighting? Well for silhouettes, we are going to do the exact opposite. Instead of metering for the face, you’re going to meter for the bright light source behind your subject.  This will cause everything else – including your subject- to be underexposed.  You may still need to tweak it in Photoshop so that it looks like a true silhouette. I do that by increasing my blacks in the curves panel.

Now that we know what how to create the look, it’s time to perfect it.  The key is to make the shapes as distinct as possible. Since this was not a flat surface with an unobstructed view (like a beach), we went to the highest point of the field to shoot this picture.  It also helped that I got as low as I could to the ground.The next thing I did was to place the family apart from one another, still holding hands, but far enough away from each other so they didn’t look like a giant indistinguishable blog.  Side note: I initially wasn’t thrilled with the way the tiniest member was blending in with the field, so I had her stand on crate allowing her to set herself apart from the background. Even though I shot this in color, I prefer the simplicity of a BW edit for these types of shots. And there you have it….a family silhouette!

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October 8, 2012 - 2:23 am

Buckeroomama - I love how this looks!

So glad you shared this, Maddy -thanks! Silhouettes are on my list of to-do’s and I’ve yet to get a good grip on how to achieve them well.

October 8, 2012 - 8:32 am

Cafe Fashionista - Ooh, this looks so awesome, Maddy! It makes me think of the cover of an album or book. Beautiful! :)

October 8, 2012 - 9:28 am

Sabine - This is truly a beautiful photo – and great tips!
How stupid is it that we cannot meet in London?!?

October 8, 2012 - 9:34 am

Life with Kaishon - You are such a great teacher : )
Love this picture.
Love your lesson.
Love you!
Happy Monday gorgeous girl!

October 9, 2012 - 7:17 am

Tiera - Love learning from you, Maddy!

October 9, 2012 - 7:55 am

Colette - I love this technique! I love when I get my silhouettes right and with the proper explanations, I think I know now how to make sure as to not mess it up :) Thank you for taking your time to share your knowledge!

October 9, 2012 - 8:06 am

Amy - Ooh, I do love a good silhouette! As always thanks for making it look easy! :)

October 9, 2012 - 3:10 pm

Camila Faria - Maddy, your photography skills keep getting better and better! Love your pics!