Sillhouette

[princesstanya]

Not sure if this is in the right place but here goes. I have been expanding my photography and learning new things.. It's constant practice practice practice ... My kids are sick of it lol. I have started trying to take silhouette photos it's getting to that frustrating stage where after a week of non stop practice I can't seem to get it right... I've tried ' tricking the camera' by focussing on the lightest part of the photo then shifting the focus to the darker subject, I have fiddled with my aperture and f numbers I have even used the silhouette setting on my Nikon but all I am getting from all of this is a darker picture that when I de colourise in edit or adjust the levels it is doing it over the entire photo making it hard to keep the background brighter than the subject. I don't expect to learn this over night but I'd love suggestions on how to do this properly, what time of day is best, what settings I should be using etc etc.. Once I am on the right track I can just practice practice practice. TIA

 

[JamesRPhoto]

You need a big light source behind your subject, sun works, best, or strobes, then you just meter so that the light source is properly exposed, and the subject, granted that they don't have a light source hitting them from the front, should be under exposed to the point where they're just a black sillouette. Play around with manual exposure settings, try it outside late in the afternoon so the sun is directly behind, right before sunset even.

 

[princesstanya]

Thank you

 

[princesstanya]

After taking all that info on board I thought I'd give it a go at the end of a couples shoot on Saturday, this was the result... Not as good as I want but I at least feel like now if I keep practicing what you guys suggested I will hopefully only get better so thank you