Silhouettes can be magical and last night I tried with my tripod and my husband to create something special. Here are some of the tips that I found online that helped me create this.1. Position your subject in front of the bright light source, for this image that would be the sun. But you can use anything. You don't have to have the sun/light source peaking out like I do here, It will be more silhouette like with the sun directly behind the subject.
2. Do not use Flash.
3. Early Morning or Sunset produce the best results, but this can be done at anytime.
4. Try to keep your subjects not too clustered or confusing. The more simple the better. Also, profiles of people are nice, since you can see more details. I tried to take some of my daughter earlier in the day and when she looked straight at me with her arms close to her sides...she just looked like a blob.
5. If you have the option to spot or use center weighted metering, meter off the brightest part of the sky. Then push your shutter half way down and take your shot with the subject. Be sure to already have the focus set the way you want for your final composition. This will help trick your camera into thinking that the most interesting part of the picture is the bright light.
6. Try bracketing the exposure when shooting. I tried 3 frames at 0.3 +/- each way.
7. I used ISO of 200 to 400 later as the sun got closer to the horizon. Set my white balance to cloudy.
8. It is recommended to use A higher f/stop, this way everything is in sharp focus. On the picture above I used a lower stop, f/3.5 and I did this because I wanted the weeds in the foreground to be in sharp focus while the silhouette of me and my hubby to be a little soft. I did this because I thought it would look cool.
9. Best silhouette occur when the sun is closest to the horizon, and right after the sun sets.
10. Keep subject large enough so it doesn't get lost in the picture also.
I think that is all of what I gathered yesterday. If anybody happens to actually read this and you have other tips, please post them in the comments so I can add it to the tutorial.
This really was fun to experiment with what I researched last night, and I am in love with this picture. A sucessful experiment!!!! ")
Here is another sihouette tutorial I found today that is very useful!
http://www.clickinmoms.com/blog/?p=671
Gorgeous photo! I may have to get a remote to be able to put myself in my shots like this.
ReplyDeleteA tip I read online was to set your timer when you are using your tripod, if you don't have a remote. There is a little more work involved, but you could get that image you want that includes yourself. :)
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