Lesson on Silhouette Photography

Silhouette photography refers to images where a part of the image is blacked out. That is, the background is bright while the foreground subject is completely black due to exposure differences. Silhouette photography happens most often by accident in sunset and sunrise shots. It also happens accidentally with some regularity in snapshots when something bright is behind the subject. Silhouette photography can create beautiful images when used deliberately and is not that difficult to master.

Subject selection
When shooting silhouette photography it is important to pay attention to the shape of your subject. Because all surface features will be lost, the impact of the subject must be conveyed by the outline shape. This means that not all subjects are well suited to silhouette photography.

How to create a silhouette
To create the silhouette effect, you must meter the exposure for the background (the brightest part of the image) and completely underexpose the foreground subject. When first learning silhouette photography sunrise and sunset are good times to practice because the sun can be positioned directly behind the subject you wish to underexpose. With a camera that allows manual settings this process is fairly simple. Focus the camera on the bright background and adjust the exposure for that lighting. Then focus the camera on your subject and check the meter to make sure that it is at least 2 stops underexposed. From there simply readjust your focus and snap away. With a camera that does not have manual exposure control you can trick the camera by placing a piece of black tape or cardboard over the flash so when the camera attempts to fire the flash no light is added to the scene. This method is a bit more tricky but with practice you can accurately predict how underexposed your camera will record the scene in this way.

Source : http://photography.about.com/