Howard Moo Young, Contributo
"Early morning bath at White Horses, St. Thomas coastline". (Silhouette of man with waterfall in foreground).
SILHOUETTES
IT'S SO simple to shoot silhouettes just choose a subject, and shoot it against a bright background, and expose for the background. Most cameras with built-in averaging exposure meters will automatically expose such a scene properly to produce a silhouette.
Producing effective silhouettes is mainly a matter of selecting silhouette subject matter that has a readily identifiable shape, and composing the scene attractively. You can shoot against a plain background (i.e., a white, overcast sky) or a colourful one (i.e., a sunset or sunrise). You can add colour to a white background by placing a coloured filter over the camera's lens.
When shooting outdoors, the trick is finding a space to shoot that provides clear skies behind the subject you intend to silhouette, bearing in mind that you'll probably want to be shooting near sunrise or sunset to take advantage of the bright sky near the horizon. Keep your eyes open for such areas in your daily travels.
For greatest impact, try to
isolate the silhouetted subject from other dark elements in the scene to avoid compositional confusion.
SUNRISE, SUNSET
Sunrise and sunset give you two opportunities each non-overcast day to make some colourful photographs. Even foggy days can yield some great shots, as long as the sun is
visible.
The best sunrise/sunset photos are made when there is something to reflect the colours low clouds or foreground water. This greatly expands the area of colour.
Wide-angle lenses are generally the best choice for sunrises and sunsets, because they take in a large area of colourful sky. But you produce an image with a large sun by focusing on a nearby subject with a super-telephoto lens the out-of-focus sun in the background will appear huge.
IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP
Never look at the sun through the viewfinder, especially when using a long lens, or serious eye damage can result. Instead, hold a white index card a few inches behind the viewfinder eyepiece, and use the image of the sun projected on it to compose the shot.
It's a good idea to bracket sunrise/sunset shots, because you'll probably like several of the resulting exposures. Photographers have their favourite spots all over Jamaica for shooting both sunrise and sunset pictures (Beverley Hills and Negril), and also their special time of year for getting the best colour (December/January).
Howard Moo Young is an advertising/graphic design/photography consultant with over 40 years experience. Email: howardmooyoung@getcaughtmedia.com
