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B+WThe best time to shoot silhouettes outdoors is when the sun’s low in
the sky, so you can position your subject against it. Contrast will be
so high that silhouettes are inevitable unless you take steps to avoid
them. A bright sky provides a perfect backdrop for silhouettes of
people, hills and mountains, buildings, trees and many other subjects,
while sunlight shimmering on water will allow you to record boats,
windsurfers and other waterborne subjects in stark silhouette against
the bright highlights. Indoors, a window or door will provide sufficient
brightness in the background to create silhouettes, as will a light
hidden behind your subject either pointing towards the background
or towards the camera so it leaves your subject in shadow.
3 WHEN TO SHOOT SILHOUETTES
Dhuni Kolhu Island, Maldives
Despite the fact there’s a lot going on in this composition, there’s enough
separation between the main elements so it works well as a silhouette.
Canon EOS 5D MKIII with 24-70mm zoom lens, 1/160sec at f/11, ISO 100Cienfuegos, Cuba
This local man and his bicycle were captured during early morning.
Sunlight reflecting off the worn road created a bright enough
background to reduce the subject to a silhouette.
Canon EOS 5D MKIII with 70-200mm zoom lens, 1/640sec at f/8, ISO 1003
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