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Captivating Examples of Silhouette Photography
Silhouette photography is a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood in a picture. A silhouette is defined as a view of an object or a scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Pictures like these often don’t convey a clear story, and leave part of the image up to the imagination of the viewer.
The key to taking a silhouette picture would be to: choose a strong subject with a defined and recognizable shape; turn off your flash to have as little light on the front of your subject as possible; get the light right by having more light shining from the background than the foreground; frame your image so that the brightest light source is behind your subject; and make sure the silhouette shapes are distinct and uncluttered by making subjects recognizable and keeping multiple subjects separate.
Below are some truly amazing examples of silhouette photography. All images are linked to the respective photographer’s websites. Feel free to explore more of their work. Enjoy and be inspired.
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]
30 Captivating Silhouette Photos
Sean Scanlon (Red Ink Photography)
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May 17th, 2009 6:07 amTruly Inspiring!
Love it! - 3May 17th, 2009 6:12 am
AWESOME examples!! awesome!!
- 4May 17th, 2009 6:13 am
Amazing Pictures!
- 5May 17th, 2009 6:28 am
Very nice, and true it is dramatic and mysterious. Thanks.
- 6May 17th, 2009 7:52 am
There are some simply amazing photos here! Love Smashing Magazine’s themed photo roundups. Although I’m not huge into photography, there are astoundingly inspiring!
- 7May 17th, 2009 7:58 am
Although I am always very impressed by the photos you are showing, I slowly miss the very good webdesign part of Smashing Magazine…
(SM) Please take a look at other posts from this and last weeks – we have published a whole bunch of web design-related posts!
- 8May 17th, 2009 8:12 am
nice collection Karishma.. very dynamic.
DKumar M.
@instantshift - 9May 17th, 2009 8:25 am
wonderful
- 10May 17th, 2009 8:31 am
incrível!
- 11May 17th, 2009 8:52 am
What? No iPod picture? :D
- 12May 17th, 2009 8:56 am
You missed the most amazing silhouette from NASA of the space shuttle in front of the sun. http://bit.ly/wauIV
- 13May 17th, 2009 9:28 am
Very nice!
- 14May 17th, 2009 10:02 am
Great images, wow! I am just asking myself: where ends photography and where starts photoshop? I don’t think all of these pictures have been just taken as they are – this would be realy stunning. But anyway, the result is really great and that’s what counts.
- 15May 17th, 2009 10:19 am
very nice and stunning
- 16May 17th, 2009 12:26 pm
Very cool! I think that Atlantis docking with Hubble for repairsvia Flickr, silhouetted by the sun should be considered as well.
- 17May 17th, 2009 1:51 pm
I agree with #12 | Mark, bu apart from that they’re all stunning.
Well done!
- 18May 17th, 2009 1:55 pm
beautiful! i just twittered this :)
- 19May 17th, 2009 2:28 pm
wow!!! amazing pics…..impressive
- 20May 17th, 2009 2:30 pm
:D SUPER
- 21May 17th, 2009 2:37 pm
wow, these are some excellent examples. Now I kind of want to go out and try doing some in that style, especially since I’m already on vacation!
- 22May 17th, 2009 2:38 pm
mostly kitsch…
- 23May 17th, 2009 2:43 pm
Great pics.
Check this photo too, Estação da Luz in Sao Paulo, Brazil – http://www.flickr.com/photos/deborabenaim/3500931438/
- 24May 17th, 2009 2:44 pm
Love it…love your tumblr too!!!!!!!! =) tumblr/ChantellePaige
- 25May 17th, 2009 2:50 pm
Great photographs. You have a really good eye for picking beautiful photos.
- 26May 17th, 2009 3:02 pm
this is a great collection of pics. i have always been interested in photography but never found a quick way to learn it. this article keeps the explanation of the art very simple and i think that is great. keep up the good work.
- 27May 17th, 2009 6:22 pm
Thanks for the great post. I’m really enjoying the emergence of photography related articles here on SM and other web design blogs.
- 28May 17th, 2009 7:55 pm
Wow..! I’m amazed. Pictures do speak a thousand words – I’ve had so many different emotions running through my head while I was looking at these pictures as i was scrolling down. Great attention to details, a wide range of emotions and an amazing array of pictures displayed – great stuff ! keep it going x
- 29May 17th, 2009 8:39 pm
Absolutely amazing!!!
- 30May 17th, 2009 10:15 pm
oh my God whats the photos are
and one more thing before reading this article I does not know the meaning of “Silhouette photography”
- 31May 17th, 2009 10:42 pm
Hey,
Karishma these pics are some of the most amazing i ever seen.
Thank you so much for sharing the Link, in fact i enjoyed reading the post as well, could learn some tips from you about Photography.
Thanx and regrds
Gaurav Bagdi
:) - 32May 18th, 2009 1:20 am
Amazing pictures (: Really lovly
- 33May 18th, 2009 1:32 am
awsome! great photos!
- 34May 18th, 2009 1:59 am
Amazing collection of pictures. Very inspiring for my monday morning
- 35May 18th, 2009 2:09 am
I am sick of the lazy image loader thing.. it is sooo annoying!
- 36May 18th, 2009 2:12 am
The pictures capture so many emotions and remind me of so many great memories with loved ones I’d pushed to the back of my mind for the last couple years. The pictures gave me a great opportunity to reflect! Excellent choice of silhouettes!
- 37May 18th, 2009 2:23 am
Very captivating photos! Love the use of the colours!
- 38May 18th, 2009 4:24 am
The Prateek Raghav birds look like they’ve been clonestamped. It really detracts.
- 39May 18th, 2009 4:32 am
you might like this one too : )
http://www.andrewbrauteseth.co.za/people/single-gallery/1632842
- 40May 18th, 2009 4:41 am
Good stuff. As usual.
- 41May 18th, 2009 4:52 am
If this were actual photography I might like it a little more, but sadly most images here look like they’ve been photoshopped to hell and back. People used to be able to take these kinds of pictures au naturel, unlike the many attention whores depicted here.
- 42May 18th, 2009 5:26 am
This set of silhouette pictures has the finest selection I have seen in a long time.
Awesome - 43May 18th, 2009 5:29 am
Amazing! good to start week with
- 44May 18th, 2009 5:47 am
cheesy
- 45May 18th, 2009 5:53 am
Superd…nice play of shadows
- 46May 18th, 2009 7:01 am
phenomenal pictures, great job. We need to see more of this high quality collection from karishma.
- 47May 18th, 2009 7:25 am
Awesome!!!!!!!!!
- 48May 18th, 2009 8:44 am
very nice collection of pictures. i think i will use some of them for my screensaver.
- 49May 18th, 2009 9:05 am
Very impressive collection!
Here are some other Silhouette pictures from Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/1568522419/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/3263931444/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/1568532603/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisg991/1568534927/ - 50May 18th, 2009 10:58 am
This are very unique and absolutely amazing photos. Great article on the different ways to create silhouettes.
- 51May 18th, 2009 11:26 am
These photos possess a dream like quality to them. Very nostalgic…They make my heart smile. =) Thanks for sharing!!!
- 52May 18th, 2009 12:26 pm
images may be photoshopped or not, I still think the overall result is worth it big time.
Great collection! - 53May 18th, 2009 1:46 pm
Truly amazing talent – Karishma job well done.
- 54May 18th, 2009 2:11 pm
STUNNING.
so great!!
I’m just gonna stare at these for a few hours lol. - 55May 18th, 2009 6:43 pm
Wow! Looks great, but some of them look so unreal, they must have been photoshopped. I wonder…
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- 59May 19th, 2009 6:11 am
Wow! Those are truly breathtaking! Enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work! Clicked some ads for you.
Kas - 60May 19th, 2009 2:28 pm
Niceeeee pics!!
this is some own pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73338810@N00/3394304610/ - 61May 19th, 2009 2:34 pm
Lame post… There are a few great pictures here but most don’t meet with the standard Smashing used to have. It’s a shame, posts like these make me wonder why I still follow SM at all…
- 62May 19th, 2009 4:54 pm
Wow – nice pics!
- 63May 20th, 2009 7:24 am
Great selection of photographs!
- 64May 22nd, 2009 2:11 am
Cool, but several images are no original photographs. Example “threefiftydee” is a ” conceptual poster” in its owner’s words.
It would be greater if you include original images
- 65May 22nd, 2009 5:15 am
@ Meghan
yes they have been clone stamped :) ..i did it to fill the frame coz the upper left part of the frame seemed empty and didnt attract .
thanx for the criticism ..but had no other option - 66May 23rd, 2009 1:04 am
Simply Amazing! and look great :D
- 67May 23rd, 2009 2:02 pm
Hi there! Thanks for featuring my shot. It was such a nice surprise when my friend told me she saw my photo here.
I’m happy for choosing this one, cuz people can notice horses are gorgeous animals.Best wishes from Warsaw! (;
- 68May 24th, 2009 11:34 pm
Bull shits
- 69May 24th, 2009 11:40 pm
impressive Pictures -|-
- 70May 24th, 2009 11:43 pm
AKSDAREFLECTION, you are very aesthetic and animated towards Nature , YOU ROCK!!!
- 71June 3rd, 2009 5:25 am
Wonderful, impressive photos! Just love them!
- 72June 4th, 2009 8:26 am
wt a lovely click!! unbelievable photography!
- 73July 1st, 2009 2:07 pm
really great!
- 74August 4th, 2009 9:03 pm
great.., thx..
- 75October 19th, 2009 11:12 am
hellow is beautifull this image and xplication’s,
have a nice day
- 00
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