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:
30 Captivating Silhouette Photos
Sean Scanlon (Red Ink Photography)
Related Posts
You may want to take a look at the following related posts:
José Padilla
May 17th, 2009 5:51 amSimply Amazing!
magnus
May 17th, 2009 6:07 amTruly Inspiring!
Love it!
freshh
May 17th, 2009 6:12 amAWESOME examples!! awesome!!
Christoph
May 17th, 2009 6:13 amAmazing Pictures!
ProjectCenter
May 17th, 2009 6:28 amVery nice, and true it is dramatic and mysterious. Thanks.
Brian Cray
May 17th, 2009 7:52 amThere are some simply amazing photos here! Love Smashing Magazine’s themed photo roundups. Although I’m not huge into photography, there are astoundingly inspiring!
netsnake
May 17th, 2009 7:58 amAlthough 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!
DKumar M.
May 17th, 2009 8:12 amnice collection Karishma.. very dynamic.
DKumar M.
@instantshift
AHTOIIIKA
May 17th, 2009 8:25 amwonderful
Felipe L.B.
May 17th, 2009 8:31 amincrível!
Floris Fiedeldij Dop
May 17th, 2009 8:52 amWhat? No iPod picture? :D
Mark
May 17th, 2009 8:56 amYou missed the most amazing silhouette from NASA of the space shuttle in front of the sun. http://bit.ly/wauIV
Harnish
May 17th, 2009 9:28 amVery nice!
Matthias
May 17th, 2009 10:02 amGreat 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.
crazy-coderz
May 17th, 2009 10:19 amvery nice and stunning
Will Reinhardt
May 17th, 2009 12:26 pmVery cool! I think that Atlantis docking with Hubble for repairsvia Flickr, silhouetted by the sun should be considered as well.
Cat
May 17th, 2009 1:51 pmI agree with #12 | Mark, bu apart from that they’re all stunning.
Well done!
Stella
May 17th, 2009 1:55 pmbeautiful! i just twittered this :)
anu
May 17th, 2009 2:28 pmwow!!! amazing pics…..impressive
Hunson
May 17th, 2009 2:30 pm:D SUPER
Rob Brogan
May 17th, 2009 2:37 pmwow, 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!
Jurica
May 17th, 2009 2:38 pmmostly kitsch…
Camilo Oliveira
May 17th, 2009 2:43 pmGreat pics.
Check this photo too, Estação da Luz in Sao Paulo, Brazil – http://www.flickr.com/photos/deborabenaim/3500931438/
Chantelle Paige
May 17th, 2009 2:44 pmLove it…love your tumblr too!!!!!!!! =) tumblr/ChantellePaige
kapi
May 17th, 2009 2:50 pmGreat photographs. You have a really good eye for picking beautiful photos.
karan
May 17th, 2009 3:02 pmthis 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.
Craig - Abrishca Digital Media
May 17th, 2009 6:22 pmThanks for the great post. I’m really enjoying the emergence of photography related articles here on SM and other web design blogs.
Samyukta Nair
May 17th, 2009 7:55 pmWow..! 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
Asela de Saram
May 17th, 2009 8:39 pmAbsolutely amazing!!!
Vijayta
May 17th, 2009 10:15 pmoh my God whats the photos are
and one more thing before reading this article I does not know the meaning of “Silhouette photography”
G Baggs
May 17th, 2009 10:42 pmHey,
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
:)
mr92
May 18th, 2009 1:20 amAmazing pictures (: Really lovly
ardyonline
May 18th, 2009 1:32 amawsome! great photos!
Lalita
May 18th, 2009 1:59 amAmazing collection of pictures. Very inspiring for my monday morning
sick
May 18th, 2009 2:09 amI am sick of the lazy image loader thing.. it is sooo annoying!
Hee
May 18th, 2009 2:12 amThe 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!
Resham Raichandani
May 18th, 2009 2:23 amVery captivating photos! Love the use of the colours!
Meghan
May 18th, 2009 4:24 amThe Prateek Raghav birds look like they’ve been clonestamped. It really detracts.
andrew
May 18th, 2009 4:32 amyou might like this one too : )
http://www.andrewbrauteseth.co.za/people/single-gallery/1632842
Jesse
May 18th, 2009 4:41 amGood stuff. As usual.
Billco
May 18th, 2009 4:52 amIf 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.
Zahira
May 18th, 2009 5:26 amThis set of silhouette pictures has the finest selection I have seen in a long time.
Awesome
miranda
May 18th, 2009 5:29 amAmazing! good to start week with
sigh
May 18th, 2009 5:47 amcheesy
bs.kishore
May 18th, 2009 5:53 amSuperd…nice play of shadows
kishore
May 18th, 2009 7:01 amphenomenal pictures, great job. We need to see more of this high quality collection from karishma.
Hassan
May 18th, 2009 7:25 amAwesome!!!!!!!!!
mydarktime
May 18th, 2009 8:44 amvery nice collection of pictures. i think i will use some of them for my screensaver.
Phys
May 18th, 2009 9:05 amVery impressive collection!
Here are some other Silhouette pictures from Flickr
http://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/
J garcia
May 18th, 2009 10:58 amThis are very unique and absolutely amazing photos. Great article on the different ways to create silhouettes.
Sarah
May 18th, 2009 11:26 amThese photos possess a dream like quality to them. Very nostalgic…They make my heart smile. =) Thanks for sharing!!!
Catalina Quiroz
May 18th, 2009 12:26 pmimages may be photoshopped or not, I still think the overall result is worth it big time.
Great collection!
roop
May 18th, 2009 1:46 pmTruly amazing talent – Karishma job well done.
Matt
May 18th, 2009 2:11 pmSTUNNING.
so great!!
I’m just gonna stare at these for a few hours lol.
Vangoh
May 18th, 2009 6:43 pmWow! Looks great, but some of them look so unreal, they must have been photoshopped. I wonder…
sama creation
May 18th, 2009 10:31 pmvery nice collection thanks
Vancouver photographer
May 19th, 2009 12:48 amAll of these are excellent. Can’t say that I like one in particular because they are all good. Thanks for posting these amazing images, I would love to start adding shilhouette to my wedding photos too.
Thanks!
oolem
May 19th, 2009 2:33 amhere’s another one. flickr
Kasandria Reasoner
May 19th, 2009 6:11 amWow! Those are truly breathtaking! Enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work! Clicked some ads for you.
Kas
nico
May 19th, 2009 2:28 pmNiceeeee pics!!
this is some own pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73338810@N00/3394304610/
Jasper Kennis
May 19th, 2009 2:34 pmLame 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…
Pri
May 19th, 2009 4:54 pmWow – nice pics!
Ronnie
May 20th, 2009 7:24 amGreat selection of photographs!
Binu
May 22nd, 2009 2:11 amCool, 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
Prateek Raghav
May 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
vel
May 23rd, 2009 1:04 amSimply Amazing! and look great :D
Dominika M. Frej
May 23rd, 2009 2:02 pmHi 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! (;
AKS
May 24th, 2009 11:34 pmBull shits
AKS
May 24th, 2009 11:40 pmimpressive Pictures -|-
LAILA MALIK
May 24th, 2009 11:43 pmAKSDAREFLECTION, you are very aesthetic and animated towards Nature , YOU ROCK!!!
bee
June 3rd, 2009 5:25 amWonderful, impressive photos! Just love them!
vinit
June 4th, 2009 8:26 amwt a lovely click!! unbelievable photography!
fruitfulife
July 1st, 2009 2:07 pmreally great!
dapas
August 4th, 2009 9:03 pmgreat.., thx..
Mk
October 19th, 2009 11:12 amhellow is beautifull this image and xplication’s,
have a nice day
masum
March 26th, 2010 10:55 ampleasure to see. keep going..
seth
June 16th, 2010 8:19 ami would be amaze if its the original photos alone… no revision… no photoshop.
tejasvi kumar
March 22nd, 2011 1:49 amits heart touching photography.
Nagaraj
March 22nd, 2011 2:53 amFantastic, eye catching pics… loved them all
eva
March 24th, 2011 6:30 amspeechless…. *amaze
AmaPhot
June 28th, 2011 4:50 pmAmazing silhouettes .. very inspiring ..