9 Tips for Shooting Silhouette Portraits

Silhouette is a common shooting technique in photography. Here are nine tips for shooting portrait silhouettes to help you shoot better works.

1. Separate from the background

The subject must be separated from the background. If the two overlap, the outline of the character will not be prominent, and people will not be able to see what they want to shoot. Therefore, if you find a relatively open sky and put the characters in it, you will get an eye-catching work.

2. Posture

When you find a suitable position to separate the subject from the background, you have to deal with the character's movements and posture, because in the silhouette photo, the details are all disappears, and the audience can only judge what happened from the outline. For example, they would have a couple kiss slowly and press the shutter right before they make contact. Once they do kiss, all that's left is a black mass.

3. Composition

In the photo above, the two trees have become strong guiding lines, allowing people to focus on the characters, while the right side is covered with a large number of The matching patterns and the use of the rule of thirds make the photos easier to read.

4. Timing

Dusk is of course a good opportunity to shoot silhouettes. The sky is dyed into different colors, and the white clouds turn into colorful clouds. This kind of picture is the most beautiful.

5. Depth of field

The photographer usually adjusts the aperture to f/8 to get as much detail as possible in the photo, but in some cases, such as the picture above, he will increase the aperture. Aperture to reduce depth of field to weaken foreground distractions.

6. Angle

One way to make the subject stand out from the background is to shoot from an ultra-low angle. For example, the picture above is an example, so that the character can stand on the slope and line up. The background is a clean sky.

7. Artificial light

In some cases, we cannot find an open place, such as in dense woods. At this time, we can use the off-flash/flying light method to create our own portrait silhouettes , those lights surrounding the outer edge of the subject will create a very beautiful effect.

8. Use a wide-angle lens

By using a wide-angle lens, you can create a physical contrast between the couple and the woods in the picture, and the photo will be more shocking.

9. Use different backgrounds

It is very convenient to use the sky to create a silhouette, but you can also pay attention to whether there are other things nearby that can be used as light sources, which can also highlight the subject.