…usually have a very impressive impact on us. The photographed object, or person lifting themselves up in darkness against the background, appear more mysterious that if they were “properly” illuminated. Usually a few simple techniques are enough to achieve impressive, and emotion filled silhouette photos. The fundamental rule for silhouettes is that the picture subject must be located in between the sun, or another strong light source, and the camera. That way the subject is not lit from the front. Instead the subject is shown in shadows, so that a silhouette effect results. If the sun is still in the sky, then the shot has to be taken in such a way, so that the subject covers the sun. When the sun lowers closer to the horizon, then indirect lighting is no longer a problem.

In order to slightly aid the silhouette appearance, it helps to take a somewhat under-lit picture. The most simple method is to enter an incorrect brightness value into the camera. First aim the camera towards the sky, which must be brighter than the desired photo object. The camera then measures the exposure time for the sky’s brightness level. Now, using this exposure time, take a picture of the actual photo subject. Because less light is captured, less detail is included in the picture. Through the lack of lighting, the object will appear like a black silhouette in the photo. If determining the exposure isn’t possible with your camera, then there are also other methods to produce an under-lit picture. You could choose a faster shutter speed, make the aperture smaller, set the light value to –1 or –2, or increase the film speed.