Exposing for the sky and letting all of the shapes in a scene is a great way to simplify a landscape photo. Here I simply exposed for the sky and water (the exposure was virtually the same) and let the shapes turn pure black.
Sunset sky near Valley of the Gods, Utah.
The famous "Old Man of the Mountains" in Franconia, New Hampshire. I created this stark silhouette of the Old Man by aiming my light meter at the sky and locking in that reading (in the manual exposure mode).
Couple on a seawall, sihlouetted against the sunset.
I'm
always preaching that the fastest way to better photos is to keep
things simple. Filling the frame with a single, obvious subject,
getting as close as you can and using plain backgrounds are all good
paths to simplicity. Another really fun way to make things
simple--especially with opaque (non-transparent) subjects that have
easily recognizable shapes--is to silhouette them against a bright
background.
Silhouettes are really easy to create: simply expose
for the bright background and turn the subject into a black shape. If
you're using a camera that has an exposure-lock feature, then you can
just take a meter reading from the bright area (the sky, a bright wall,
etc.) and lock in that reading. Then recompose the shot and shoot at
that exposure. If you're using a really simple camera that won't let
you lock a meter reading, don't worry, in most cases if the background
is extremely bright (like the sunset sky here), the camera will be
fooled into exposing for the background anyway.
Your
goal with most silhouettes is to turn the foreground black and by
exposing purely for the bright areas, you will automatically cast the
foreground into blackness. It is important though that you take your
readings directly from the bright area and that you don' include the
shape or subject itself, or you may begin to see too much detail in the
foreground
The most important aspect of creating any silhouette is to have a
recognizable shape as your subject. Most of us are familiar with the
shape of a giant saguaro cactus (above), for example, and so we know immediately what
the subject is. The more colorful the background, of course, the more
dramatic and the prettier the shot will be. Sunset and twilight are
excellent times of day to look for bold silhouette shapes because you
have a naturally occurring colorful sky. As a bit of a bonus, exposing just for the sky also
helps to saturate the sky colors which makes silhouette shots all the more dramatic and colorful.
Remember too, you can always bump up the contrast and saturate the
colors in Photoshop or another image-editing program. In most of the
shots here I used the curves adjustment to enhance the contrast a bit,
but because I was working with such naturally colorful backgrounds, the
colors took care of themselves (though I have no personal objection to
zapping the saturation a bit--especially for the web).
Finally, while bright colorful sunset skies are great visually exciting, you can also find good opportunities in less dramatic situations. In the shot of the heron (below), for example, it wasn't the colors but just the interesting interplay of shapes that drew my eye to the scene and by exposing just for the water, I was able to make those shapes the subject. And in some situations, like the shot of the sculpture (below) shot in Arizona, there are bits of the shot that aren't opaque and so let some light through--an effect I happen to like a great deal. you will get the same visual effect if you shoot a tree with autumn leaves in silhouette--the shape of the tree will be black, but the sun coming through the leaves will retain some color.
A sculpture silhouetted against a bright blue desert sky. Again, all that I did was to expose for the sky and let the shapes themselves go black. You can see that the glass objects in the sculpture are not opaque and so let light through--an interesting addition to the silhouette, I think.
Obviously the desert at sunset is one of my favorite places to look for interesting silhouettes. How could you not be attracted to the combination of these incredible saguaro shapes and a colorful sunset sky? Where would you aim the lens (or light meter) to take a light reading for this scene? Click the image for the answer!
Heron fishing in silhouette. In this case a dark subject against a bright water background had enough contrast to create a silhouette.
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