photography question. important! help greatly appreciated. how do you do this?

J

Jennifer C

New member
ive seen many pictures where the lighting is great and you can see the background perfect, but somehow they get the person to come out really dark like black but it looks good..ive seen one of this girl looking out the window and she looked like a shadow kind of but it was really her. i would love to figure out how to do..help please =/ i would really appreciate it thanks!!
 
It's called a silhouette and it's created by setting your exposure for a fairly bright background while letting foreground objects underexpose until they appear black. You can do this pretty easily during a sunrise or a sunset by taking a light reading off the sky, then (using that reading) composing so that trees or other objects are in the foreground and taking the picture. To do one of a person, you can "hide" a light behind the person's head and aim it at the wall. Use the exposure reading off the wall then set up the picture with the person's profile looking left or right. It won't take long to learn after taking a few practice shots.
 
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