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• Graphics, Photography
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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.

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

• Showcase Of Beautiful Shadow Photography
• Oversaturated Pictures and Lomography
• Photos that depict Human Emotion
• 25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots
  

Captivating Silhouette Photography

Bogantropuz

Laura Kok

Lostchildclothing

Sprintist

Dominika M. Frej

Robert Gühne (Utzel-Butze)

creativesam

Thomas Hawk

Prateek Raghav

Juxxo

threefiftydee

Icy Blush

Astoria4u

aksdareflection

TJ Scott

Wei Bunn

TJ Scott

Randall Scholten

Alexandr Zadiraka

Sean Scanlon (Red Ink Photography)

Phil Thomson IPA

Manic Berry

Michael Sheridan

Marina Filipovic

Phil

Muha

Ahmed Shiham

Toshihiro Oshima