Recently some people asked me how to create silhouette? What exactly is it? And how our camera able to capture silhouette? Because in most situation silhouette does not apparent in human eyes (our eyes have great dynamic range, thus, harder to see silhouette). Some also said that we need heavy post process to create silhouette image. I think this kind of be true, but not always. Yes, by add more contrast, more shadow, add blackness to our photos, then silhouette effect is easier to achieve, even if the original image actually is not a solid black silhouette. However, when the light is strong enough and the angle is spot on, then our original file will reveal object as silhouette.
To create silhouette: We need relatively bright spot/place as background with subject stand right in front of it, and part of subject that face toward our camera receive significant lower level of light compare to its background.
Here are some tips to create silhouette object in our street photography:
Daylight: Window is source of silhouette
Indoor at afternoon, window acts like source of light, therefore, if it receive enough light from outside, then everything that passed in front of window will become silhouette objects. We need to make sure there is strong light outside, could be at gloomy / cloudy day then this method will not work. Even better if we can get direct sun light through window at sunrise or sunset time, silhouette would be more crisp and pitch black. In photo above silhouette happened because of strong light at sunny day outside and there is not enough light quantity from inside of airport to hit subject as usually lamps go off at daylight time.
Daylight: Sun is the biggest source of silhouette
Generally, if we shot at daylight time outdoor, we can just point our camera into the Sun, and all objects between lens and Sun would become silhouette. It is very simple. More challenging part is how to make good composition while we turn up our camera, how to find the right angle prior to our object. When the sun itself is clear without any clouds around, we can play a bit with sunstar effect. To get sunstar effect we need our object cover just a small part of Sun, and to make sunstar even longer, use small aperture like f16 or smaller.
If you want to mix colours with silhouette at daylight time, find wall (or any surfaces) that get plenty of Sun light. Brighter surface colours like white, yellow, red, blue, etc will bounce more light therefore produce blacker silhouette and also contrasty colours match will have more “eye catching” effect to audience’s eyes. Notice on the photo above, that there were some parts of wall covered by shadow, so when the subject entered these shadow parts silhouette effect happened. There was very low light level that hit subject’s body compare to bright yellow wall on the background (that not covered by shadow).
Night Time: Lamp light as source of silhouette
Advertising board is your friend! They need to stay bright at daylight time therefore people set them with plenty of brightness power. When evening comes these advertising boards will produce strong brightness that easily make every objects in front of them turn into silhouette.
Search background with unique colours match or unique pictures to add more dramatic effect. Advertising boards have so many background designs, use them to enhance creative level in your images. Like on photo above, I get stronger look in image by add eye contact to viewers.
So what if there is no advertising board light around? Remember the fact that basic silhouette is a subject in front of light source. Even regular lamp can do the job! In the photo above I use just a regular lamp light (usually we find at our home), but due the place I was standing is relatively dark spot, then even a regular lamp can create enough contrast to make silhouete effect (because almost no light at all that hit the subject’s face).
Camera setting to capture silhouette
Case 1:
We have strong light on the background, and only low intensity of light that will hit subject that walk right in front of bright background. I would say this one is the easiest case, we even can set our camera in full auto mode and still capture silhouette scene easily. Just do not forget that we want to capture some movement here, so have fast shutter speed is important. At daylight time I usually use 1/400 second at the very least to make sure there is no blur object caused by shake or movement. (Unless you want to create that kind of blur as additional effect).
Case 2:
Subject could be move too fast, and our lens could not lock focus fast enough onto subject. To solve this matter we use small aperture, and lock your focus on background wall. At f11 or smaller almost entire frame will be in focus (especially in wide lens like 35 mm full frame equivalent or wider), so we do not need to worry where our focus point is. It works really well when the distance between subject and background is close one to each other.
To make it even easier, rather than keep facing our camera onto wall and hold our finger on shutter while waiting for the right subject to enter, just switch to manual focus, and make our camera focus on the background. Or, if our camera has AF-L (Autofocus Lock) button then just autofocus on the background, then lock focus with AF-L button. What we need to do the rest is only waiting the right subject fill the frame. When there is no interesting subject we can just put down our camera and pretend like we are waiting for something instead act like paparazzi who facing their camera all the time to random people. When interesting subject finally arrived, we can just put up our camera and start click the shutter without worry whether our subject would be in focus or not.
Additional tips: Search for a simple background. Simple here means less texture or less elements. Too noisy or busy background has a chance to distract the main silhouette for being the main point of interest.
That is all for my tips to create silhouette effect in street photography, feel fry to try it yourself, just never forget that we as street photographer should have fun in the process of making photos. Never stress yourself because of it.
Keep shooting and be inspired,
Nico Harold