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B+W
The vast majority of silhouette images tend
to depict subjects that are on the large
side – trees, buildings, statues, boats.
However, when it comes to choosing
suitable subjects, there are no rules and
small-scale stuff can be just as interesting
when reduced to a silhouette.
Try creating still life silhouettes, for
example, by placing simple, bold objects
against a bright background. A window
ledge will be ideal, or a sheet of white card
with light shining on it. In the natural world,
look for things like reeds and grasses
silhouetted against bright water, or birds
in flight against the sky.
8 SMALL SCALE
SILHOUETTES
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
For this still life I placed the spectacles on
a newspaper then shone a reading lamp on
them. Light reflecting off the paper created
a bright enough background to reduce
the specs to a silhouette.
Canon EOS 1DS MKIII with 24-70mm zoom lens,
1/30sec at f/11 ISO 400Whether or not you need filters depends
on the situation and the effect you’re
trying to achieve. I often use a 0.6 or
0.9 ND grad to hold detail in a dramatic
sky above silhouetted hills, for example,
but sometimes it’s better to let the sky
overexpose and burn out so it creates
a simple, bright backdrop. A 10-stop or
similar extreme ND filter is useful if you’re
shooting water as the long exposure lets
you smooth the water out nicely so it forms
a simple background to static features such
as piers, jetties and groynes that can be
reduced to silhouettes.7 MAKE THE MOST
OF FILTERS
West Pier, Brighton
A long exposure was used to capture this
scene, to remove texture from the sea so
it merged with the bright, overcast sky.
The ruined pier and posts almost seem
to be floating in space.
Canon EOS 5DS with 24-70mm zoom lens,
10-stop ND filter, 2mins at f/20, ISO 507
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