Silhouettes are a great photographic expression because the extreme contrast between areas of light and shadow, and the emotion and mystery of cloaking your subject in darkness can make for an extremely dramatic photo.

Beginning photographers often stumble upon taking silhouetted images because of getting the exposure settings wrong, then never go back to shooting silhouettes on purpose. Today’s challenge is to get yourself thinking about silhouettes! To help in that endeavor, we’ve assembled some easy tips for silhouette shots.

Use Spot Metering

Part of the trouble of getting a good silhouette is knowing where to meter your shot. When outdoors, meter off the sky. When indoors, meter off your light source. Doing so will ensure your sky or background is properly exposed while your subject is in nice shadow. You can also try partial metering or center-weighted average metering to get a good silhouette.

Camera Settings and Lens Choice

When shooting silhouettes, shoot in manual mode so you have the most control over what your camera is doing. Keep your aperture in the mid-range, perhaps around f/8. This will give you a good enough depth of field for most situations while retaining a small enough opening that you still get dark silhouettes. If you’re shooting an action silhouette, like the one above, try a shutter speed of around 1/500s so you’re sure to freeze the movement of the scene as well. If your subject is static, you can slow down the shutter and close down the aperture and still get nice shadows.

In terms of lenses, you can really use just about any lens to effectively get a silhouette. Having said that, many photographers prefer wide-angle lenses because they will provide you with a better perspective of what’s surrounding the subject. The increased sense of height and depth you can achieve with a wide-angle lens can give your silhouette shot a lot of additional drama.

Separate Your Subject from the Background

To get a nice silhouette shot your subject obviously needs to stand out from the background. The easiest way for you to do this is to make sure the background is brighter than your subject. Sunset is a great time to get a nice silhouette because of the drama provided by the colors of the sky.

Part of getting some separation is isolating your subject. There should be as few distractions in the frame as possible, or you can use a shallow depth of field to get a nice blurry background, as was done in the image above. If you’re taking a photo of multiple people, be sure there is some space between them as well, so it’s obvious there are two people and not just one giant blob!

Get Some Perspective

Shooting silhouette shots may not be feasible from a traditional stance. Instead, get down low to shoot upwards toward your subject. This is especially helpful when shooting outdoors because you can more easily incorporate the sky behind your subject.

Focus on Shapes

Since silhouetted figures don’t have a lot of obvious detail, it is important to focus on their shape. If working with people, try posing them such that you can see their profile. The outline of their facial features will be particularly striking in silhouette form. If photographing objects, like plants or trees, the same principle applies. Try positioning yourself such that you find the best angle to get the most interesting profile.

Practice and Participate!

Whether you shoot with a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens, a macro lens, or something in between, you can create dramatic, eye-catching silhouette photos. It’s a matter of separating and isolating your subject from the background and using a low perspective to incorporate as much background into the shot as you can. Focusing on shapes and forms will also prove beneficial because the profile of your subject will be much more interesting. Just set your camera to manual mode, choose a mid-range aperture and shutter speed, spot meter off the sky or your light source, and snap away!

Getting a great silhouette will take a little practice, but armed with these easy tips, we have every confidence that you can create an awesome silhouetted image. Once you do, get it up on today’s forum so you can show off your skills and creativity to the other participants in our 30-Day Challenge.