How to shoot the silhouette effect?

When the sun goes down, the light ratio between the sky and the ground scenery is very large. With this function, we can shoot silhouette against the light. Silhouette portrait is mainly to highlight the outline characteristics of characters, which can make the picture have a strong abstract aesthetic feeling and artistic atmosphere.

Equipment preparation

Lens: The lens similar to Canon EF 70-200mm2.8L is USM.

This kind of zoom lens can facilitate us to shoot silhouette portraits with more exquisite composition and simpler picture.

Clothing and styling design

When taking silhouette portraits, the style and color of clothes are not very important, because people are usually dark. In order to better show your figure, you should try to choose clothes that can show the beauty of your body curve, such as tight dresses, suspenders and vests.

In the figure's hairstyle, it is best to choose a hairstyle with obvious aesthetic feeling, such as curly hair, which can make the silhouette of the figure's head more beautiful.

With the brighter part of the sky as the background, it is more convenient to shoot the silhouette effect of people. )

Real shooting process

(1) Choose a suitable shooting time. One hour before sunset and about one hour after sunset are the prime time for portrait silhouette shooting. At this time, not only the light angle is low, but also it is easier to shoot a strong warm tone effect.

(2) Set camera parameters. First of all, Canon EOS

The shooting mode of 60D is set to aperture priority exposure mode (Av block) and bright area (bright sky, etc. ) you can shoot by spot metering to further darken the subject of the person under the backlight.

Secondly, set the focusing mode of Canon EOS 60D to single autofocus mode.

Then, set the white balance to cloudy white balance, and let the camera shoot at a higher color temperature value to further enhance the warm tone effect of the picture.

Finally, in order to ensure a more pure picture effect, it is suggested to set the sensitivity to ISO 100.

(3) framing and composition. In framing and composition, through appropriate upward shooting, a large area of bright sky can be brought into the picture, which can set off the main body of the silhouette and make the picture more concise.

In addition, properly arranging some other scenes as silhouette ligands can also play a role in enriching and balancing the picture.

Shooting from the side can better show the outline of the character.

Generally speaking, the profile of a character is more formal and beautiful than the front, so when taking a silhouette, you can try to take a profile of the character.

The curvy beauty of the subject's body.

Because the silhouette effect itself has the function of highlighting the outline of the character, we should also consciously show the beautiful shape of the character when shooting the silhouette of the character under the backlight.

To do this, in addition to the exposure and composition skills mentioned above. It is also important to guide the characters to pose in a form that can reflect their beauty.

Especially when shooting female portraits, you can try to let them stretch their bodies and pose in an S-shape or other postures that can reflect the beauty of female body curves in backlight.

How to completely darken a character into a silhouette effect

In addition to the above-mentioned use of aperture priority exposure mode combined with spot metering to shoot bright areas, there are other methods that can also play a role in darkening the subject.

For example, we can directly reduce the exposure compensation of 1-2 on the basis of the original photometry, which can make the subject in the dark area appear darker.

For another example, we can directly choose to use the manual exposure mode, and then reduce the shutter speed of 1-2 on the basis of the original metering, which can also achieve the purpose of darkening the subject.

Using the backlight at sunset to shoot silhouettes can better show the outline of characters and the curvaceous beauty of bodies. )

How to avoid serious glare in the picture

When taking a silhouette against the light, it is easy to cause glare due to the direct sunlight on the lens, which affects the neatness of the picture. This problem can be alleviated to some extent by installing a hood in front of the lens or blocking the light by hand.