This photo immediately caught my eye. What a perfect example of our monthly focus, silhouette. Beautiful photo Lisa! Thank you for contributing.
You can see more of Lisa's work in her Flickr stream
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Silhouettes
by Judy
Happy July everyone! It's a new month, and with that comes a new theme. This month we are focusing on silhouette photography.
Silhouettes add drama and intrigue to a photo. By taking away the details of an image, we focus on the shape and lighting in the photo. Although silhouette photography is fairly easy to learn, there are a few tips that will make your silhouette photos really beautiful.
First and foremost, your subject must be backlit. The lighting can be indoor light, or natural light, but the background light must be brighter than your subject.
Set your camera to spot metering. Meter the lighting of the sky, or whatever light source you are using, then compose your shot. (In addition, I use either shutter priority or aperture priority, which helps ensure a crisp silhouette.)
When photographing silhouettes, make sure there is separation between your subjects, like the shot above. If there is no separation, your silhouette will look like a large black blob.
Do not use your flash, or any fill lighting when shooting silhouettes.
When shooting landscapes, or seascapes, in silhouette, I choose an aperture of f8 or larger to ensure the background is in focus too.
Silhouette photography can be of anything - people, objects, buildings, nature, animals, trees, etc. Any subject that has a pronounced shape will look great in silhouette. It's easy, so grab your camera and capture some silhouettes!
Post your silhouette photos on our flickr page and/or on our instagram feed (@focusing_on_life), with the hashtag #focusingonlife.
Happy shooting everyone!
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