Stunning silhouettes

Peter Travers proves silhouettes are a simple yet artistic photo technique

- Peter Travers

In this photo project I'll show you how easy it can be to shoot silhouettes with your Canon gear. The main aim of shooting a silhouette is to expose for the brighter sky to capture a stunning sunset, with a strong subject, such as people, trees or buildings, shown as dark black outlines on the horizon.

In the high-contrast lighting when shooting at sunsets, the dynamic range of your EOS camera's sensor isn't capable of capturing detail in the dark landscape or subject, as well as the colours of the much brighter sky in one shot. While this is usually a hindrance, for silhouettes, this is a big help! We went for a portrait silhouette as the children make clear, atmospheric and graphic shapes on the horizon.

The trick is to use subjects that are recognizable by their outline above the land, and to keep the scene simple by zooming in and composing to concentrate on single elements rather than wide scenes. See the steps below.

THE MISSION ....

Shoot at sunset to capture creative silhouette portraits

Time needed

One hour

Skill level