How to get a sillhouette shot?

[nicka912]

I've been seeing some excellent silhouettes around here, and I'm just not sure how to do it. Do you adjust the aperature??? Or do you just click at the right time?

-nicka912

[MattyB]

just meter off the brighter background behind the subject.

[MattyB]

wait, i'll give you a mission.

put a lamp on your desk, turn it on, manual focus (if you can, isn't a must in most cases), aim at the lamp, hold the shutter button half way down, then stick your hand between you and the lamp, hit the shutter

and see how that works out.
post up your results, tweak it and play around with it

[nicka912]

Thanks for the tips: I screwed around with aperature and shutter speed
Came out a little something like this
Try 1: No tinkering in manual, although this one, the lamp's green shade was tilted away, directly exposing the lens to light
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/nicka912/IMG_1887.jpg

Try 2: Tinkered with the aperature value, shaded direct light
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/nicka912/IMG_1888.jpg

Try 3: Tinkered a bit more
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/nicka912/IMG_1889.jpg

[tim]

Nicka, it's good practice and polite to resize your images down to 600 or so pixels wide so people don't have to scroll their screen to see your images. Most people won't bother scrolling and you'll end up with less help with wide images.

The key to sillhouette shots is metering the bright background. Use fill flash if you want to see the background and the foreground.

[nicka912]

Yeah sorry about the resizing, I usually have it set to the small size on the camera when I am using one of the automatic functions, and when I shifted into manual it gave me the largest sized images.

[tim]

A better approach is to shoot full size images and resize on your PC. You never know what images are going to come out "wow", and memory's cheap.

[SWPhotoImaging]

For this one, I exposure-locked on the wall, than re-composed to put the old woman in the center. The result is she is very underexposed, and ends up a silhouette against the bright wall.

http://sdwike.smugmug.com/photos/31460483-L.jpg

[MattyB]

Try 1: No tinkering in manual, although this one, the lamp's green shade was tilted away, directly exposing the lens to light

that's the way to do it, have the lamp globe exposed

nicka, tim isn't being mean, he's a mod. it's his job to inform you :)

this time - when you meter the lamp (point and half press on it) - put your hand in the way of the lamp totally, so you can't see the brightness of the lamp.

also, slow the shutter speed (if you can, don't go below 125), and open the aperture (f/36 or so) if your camera allows it.

[nicka912]

A better approach is to shoot full size images and resize on your PC. You never know what images are going to come out "wow", and memory's cheap.

I suppose I never saw it that way. Thanks!

[tim]

I suppose I never saw it that way. Thanks!

No worries. My favorite photo, which I have printed 20x30 inches on my lounge wall, was a random snap of a flower I did on holiday that came out fantastic. If I was on small JPG i'd never have been able to blow it up that large, as it is it looks great :)

[nicka912]

Sounds pretty good.

Thanks for all the input fellas, you've helped a lot. I'll work on it some tomorrow and then get back to you with some results.

[MattyB]

looking forward to it nicka :)