I take a lot of silhouette pictures!! The trick is shooting into the sun. Having the sun directly behind the subject works best...
For this picture, I just shot into the sun and had the sun peeking through the branches. Do you have a dslr? Do you shoot on manual? if you mess with the manual settings you can get better results... but I think you can go without.
then after I uploaded the picture (I use Picasa to upload my pictures) and then I increase the shadows a bit and increase the highlights to make it "that much better"... does that make sense?? If you don't have Picasa you could try adjusting contrast in another program maybe... either that or the picture may just look fine as it is :)
For these two pictures of me... I was shooting into this sun, but in this case the sun was up in the sky...but IN the photo frame.
It definitely takes a few shots to filter out the "p[erfect" one... and it may take practice :)
basically what Lauren stated, but mainly expose your image for the background light. And provide no front fill whether from strobe (or pop up from camera, turn off your flash or BLOCK with hand if using point and shoot), watch for sun reflections from windows (cars, building whatever) that bounces light back into your subject. Doing these shots at dusk or early sunrise typically yields some great shots. You can however manage these shots strictly by artifical lighting (strobes) by placing your lights only on the background and again nothing on your subject.
for silhouettes i just make sure that i am usually in front of the sun. basically, you arnt shooting with the sun behind you so you get the light.. its with the sun infront of you get the shadows of what you are photographing.
Alternatively, try experimenting with your subject in front of a window or as others have said, outdoors with a fairly exposed horizon, with your camera on 'M' mode - set your ISO to 100, close your aperture down to about f16 or f22 and experiment with different shutter speeds to get the effect you want. With the aperture that closed, it should darken it down enough to get a silhouette.
thanks so much!! this is just the information I was looking for! I am so glad I found this sight to help figure these things out!! you guys are awesome!! i will have to work on getting a great silhouette shot soon!! Thank you so much!!!
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For this picture, I just shot into the sun and had the sun peeking through the branches. Do you have a dslr? Do you shoot on manual? if you mess with the manual settings you can get better results... but I think you can go without.
then after I uploaded the picture (I use Picasa to upload my pictures) and then I increase the shadows a bit and increase the highlights to make it "that much better"... does that make sense?? If you don't have Picasa you could try adjusting contrast in another program maybe... either that or the picture may just look fine as it is :)
For these two pictures of me... I was shooting into this sun, but in this case the sun was up in the sky...but IN the photo frame.
It definitely takes a few shots to filter out the "p[erfect" one... and it may take practice :)
I hope this helped!!!
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