Tips for Capturing Silhouettes

by Elizabeth Dillow | 10 years ago

A silhouette is one of the simplest and most striking type of images to capture, and it’s extremely easy to achieve using your phone camera (though the same basic principles apply for any camera). Not only does a silhouette create a little mystery and drama in an image, it’s also a great way to breathe some new life into how you approach taking photos.

Here are a few tips to get you started thinking about silhouettes:

photo by Tracey Clark

+ It’s extremely important to study the light source to capture an effective silhouette! While it’s a little counter-intuitive at first, you want the subject to block the light in a way that it falls into darkness; this creates a stark contrast between the light and dark shape.

+ Big, bold and identifiable shapes work best for silhouettes. Power lines, trees, and people standing at a slight distance from each other work far better as silhouette material than clumpy items too close together.

Tips for Capturing Silhouettes

photo by Elizabeth Dillow

+ Instead of tapping the part of the screen that appears darkest (to lighten up the exposure) it’s important to tap the brightest area of your image so you can control the light in the way you want. Experiment to see what a change it makes when exposing the image!

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