photo tip : silhouettes

there was a time i that i loved, loved, LOVED taking silhouettes. that time was BB (before baby) because AB (after baby), i only want to take gratuitous amount of photos of her cute face before it changes and pretty much nothing else, as you'll see in my flickr page (you're gonna have to go like way back to the dawn of time before you see photos of other things than my baby - because i'm obsessed by my own creation like that).

but let me tell you about that time when i took a lot of silhouettes because essentially that's what this blog is about. photos. wanna go read about the baby, go to the other blog, thank you.

where was i? oh, yes. silhouettes.

silhouettes, for those who's scrunching their faces now trying to figure it out what it means, is a picture of the outline/shape of the subject, normally black, taken against the light source. you know how you'd usually try to locate where the sun/light is and will move about so that your back is against the light when taking a photo so that your subject is well lighted? yeah, so silhouette is the opposite of that.

sometimes, when all you can make out is just the shape of the subject, the effect can be pretty dramatic, mysterious, creative and emotive at the same time. it's up to the audience to translate what you're trying to convey. when the background is nice, a silhouette photo really pops.

it can be a photo of landscape, a person or a few people, object, whatever. the trick is, a bright coloured background that is simple and uncluttered. because the silhouette already draws so much of the attention and takes up most of the focus of the composition, so you'd want a background that doesnt need to say that much. works really well for sunset/sunrise pictures.

it's really simple. get your subject to stand / pose in front of the light, blocking directly the light source (i.e the sun if you're taking a sunset/sunrise photo) and just snap. i don't know how to explain it technically (you can go here for tips). but somehow, someway, i manage to capture some silhouettes moments.




















and some which my brothers have taken :















try it out the next time you're at the beach. it's a different idea than just your typical sunset/sunrise picture. oh, and after that, of course, do some post editing. adjusting the contrast would do the trick.