Photo by Steve Berardi
Although they’re simple looking images, there are a few little tricks to photographing them. Here are a few I’ve learned:
#1 – Use a telephoto lens
With silhouettes, you’ll usually want that great bokeh in the background, so a telephoto lens will help you with that. They’re not always required though (the image above was taken with a 50mm lens).
#2 – Shoot at sunrise to avoid wind
One of the biggest problems you’ll face when photographing silhouettes of plants is wind. Since you’ll be shooting in low light, a slight breeze will shake the plant enough to cause a blurry photo. One way to prevent this is to shoot at sunrise instead of sunset. The air is usually much calmer in the morning than in the afternoon.
#3 – Use a wide aperture
The wide aperture is good for two reasons: it helps blur the background more, and it helps get you a fast shutter (good for battling the wind).
#4 – Wait for partly cloudy days
The most dramatic sunrises or sunsets occur when there’s a little bit of cloud cover. The light scatters through the clouds, creating some spectacular colors. So, keep an eye out for these conditions, and always wait until well after sunset or arrive well before sunrise. Sometimes the most magical colors don’t show themselves until these times.
#5 – Choose a subject that is otherwise “dull” looking in daylight
I love to use silhouettes as a way to visually capture some of my favorite “dull” looking plants. For example, when I first started exploring the Mojave Desert, I immediately became fascinated by the amazing adaptability of the Creosote bush, but it’s a visually unappealing plant:
Creosote Bush by Comrogues (used under CC-Attr license)
So, to make it more visually appealing, I decided to try to photograph a silhouette of a single branch at sunrise:
Photo by Steve Berardi
#6 – Keep it simple
Instead of trying to photograph the silhouette of an entire bush, or a group of clustered trees, try to focus on just one branch of the bush or just one tree. Trying to include too much in one photo can complicate it and confuse the viewer.
#7 – Use manual focus
With autofocus, your camera may have difficulty focusing on your subject, and instead try to focus on the colorful background. To avoid this, use manual focus.
What did I miss?
If you’ve found a particular technique useful for photographing silhouettes, please share it by leaving a comment below!
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About the Author: Steve Berardi is a naturalist, photographer, computer scientist, and founder of PhotoNaturalist. You can usually find him hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains or the Mojave Desert, both located in the beautiful state of California.
#8 – Use a tripod (but that tip applies to most all nature photography doesn’t it)
How to you set the exposure? Do you meter off of the sky?
I’ll have to get up early this coming weekend and give this a try with my newly acquired 70-200 f/4L lens
Hi Steve,
Always enjoy your photography tips, but didn’t hear back regarding a photo critique I requested a few months ago. Are you not providing this service any more?
Frank
Thanks for the tip, good advice on. Making something dull much better.
Forgot to mention in my previous e-mail, but I find generally I get better colour saturation if I meter the sky and underexpose it at least 1/2 a stop. I sometimes have to use a small aperture if there is dramatic detail in the sunset I wish to capture, and manually focus slightly behind the foreground to ensure both sky & foreground are in focus (tripod essential here).
@Zack – Great addition! The tripod is almost always essential for getting sharp photos and definitely useful for silhouettes. For exposure, I do what Frank mentioned above: meter off the sky and move about one stop down. Since it’s relatively dark when I shoot silhouettes, I usually trust the LCD preview and review the photo afterwards (in the daylight though, I only look at the histogram). Great choice with that lens, btw
@Frank – I apologize for not responding to your critique request! Matthew has been super busy lately, so we’ll probably be discontinuing the podcast… so won’t be doing critiques anymore. I’ll try to look for the photo you sent me though, and write back what I think, or if you have a different one, please feel free to email me. Also, great tip about exposure! I do the same thing and it’s worked pretty well for me too.
I’ve been looking around for a good way to increase my knowledge about photography (which isn’t much), and this site is an awesome resource. Thanks!
# 9 Read about and look at the many as possible photos you can, and then get out to try it.
Great photography tips to follow.
awesome shots.
would like to follow ur step, lol…..
btw,thanks for the tips.
Tip – turn around. Sometimes the most intense colors are behind you.