Silhouette Images

Header image settings: f/3.5, ISO 200, 1/3200s

In art, a silhouette is a picture of the outline of an object filled in with a solid (usually black) color. When I have a stunning, colorful sunset and a relatively unobstructed view of the sky, I love to create silhouette images for my clients.

When you only have an outline, it is very important to still be telling a story. I’m mindful of my posing and placement to display the emotions that I am trying to convey.

I don’t necessarily start with a specific camera setting for this — I’m also usually trying to change my settings quickly, so you won’t see a lot of consistency in the settings that I show for each image. Typically, I am just trying to lower my exposure as quickly as I can so I am decreasing ISO, closing my aperture, and/or increasing my shutter speed until the images on the back of my camera look right.

In order to get my subjects above the horizon, I usually have to squat or lay to get below them:

Sometimes if there is a hill I can get my subjects above me by placing them high:

Below are a few more examples of silhouettes, each with the settings listed below:

One thing I have learned through trial and error is that I prefer the look of a silhouette when the sun is still above the horizon and I cover the sun with my subject, like in this example here:

In the two examples below, the sun had already set and was under the horizon line. There just isn’t enough available light in this situation and the sky shows more digital noise because of how dark the scene was:

So… what happens if my client requests a silhouette image but I can’t get an unobstructed view of the sky? This hasn’t happened to me often, but when it has I take a side profile picture, clip the subject out in Photoshop and turn them black, and paste them onto a different image of a sky. It isn’t ideal, but it works if you need it!