Sunday, December 9, 2007

Silhouettes

A good way to spice up your photo slide show is to be sure there are one or two decent silhouettes included. Most people are not expecting them. They're expecting "the usual." It's your job--should you want your audience to remain interested--to occasionally provide the unusual. All you need for a good silhouette is backlight. Well, there's a little more to it than that, but backlight is essential. Everything you ever heard about keeping the light behind you--or just over your shoulder--forget it. In this case you want the light in front of you. Maybe off to the side just a bit, but basically in front of you and behind your subject. For those of you with more advanced cameras try metering the sky (not including the sun!) then shoot away. For the more point and shoot types the camera's light meter will most likely be able to read the scene properly and give you what you want. In other words simply make sure the sun is behind your subject then just point and shoot! Oh! It is also important to have a clean background so that your subject stands out. A cluttered background will just obscure everything. Try getting down low so the subject is against a clear blue sky or as in the case below get up high and use the reflection off water as background. Whatever the case, adding a silhouette or two to your vacation photos will help enrich the viewing experience.

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