Photographing Silhouettes

Fun in the setting sun

Someone recently asked me via email for some tips on photographing silhouettes. Here was my response.

  • Focus on the edge of the silhouette. Your camera’s autofocus will find it hard to lock the focus if you aim in the centre of the silhouette.
  • Shoot on manual. You’ll need a faster shutterspeed than your camera’s automatic setting would choose.
  • Try to get the silhouette against an uncluttered background.
  • Try backlighting the silhouette – having a light directly behind the subject, pointing towards the camera, but masked by the silhouette. It can give a nice halo-like effect on the edges of the silhouette.
  • If you’re outdoors, sunset is the perfect time of day to capture silhouettes.

Shooting Sparkadia

For more detailed advice see this guide on how to photograph silhouettes.

A flick of the hair

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4 Comments

  2. Some great examples there Dan!
    I liked the tip about going to the edge of the silhouette – sometimes at gigs when I’m trying for a silhouette I’ll be desperately searching for something white (or with a bit of contrast) in the same line as the shot so I can lock the centre point focus and recompose.

  3. and I should add that sometimes a flick to manual focus is in order (and when i think about it – that’s probably the simplest solution!)

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