Skip to main content

How to photograph a silhouette and master the dark side of photography

A good photograph doesn’t always have every detail perfectly lit. Silhouette photography obscures the details and instead emphasizes shape and form. 

Photographing a silhouette isn’t necessarily difficult, but the auto mode on your camera won’t help you. In fact, automatic exposure is generally designed to prevent silhouettes. The best way to shoot a silhouette is to use manual exposure or exposure compensation, but you’ll also need the right lighting conditions. You can use any camera, including your phone, but mirrorless cameras and DSLRs will yield the best results. Basic editing software, like Adobe Lightroom or one of many alternatives, is also recommended.

Hillary K. Grigonis/Digital Trends

Lighting

A silhouette is created when the background is sufficiently brighter than your subject so that when the background is properly exposed, the subject goes completely black.

There are a number of different ways to achieve this. Outside, make sure your subject is between you and the sun, or frame them against a bright sky. You’ll need to shoot at the beginning or end of the day, commonly called the golden hour, so that the sun is low in the sky. Post-sunset is also a great time for silhouettes, but you’ll have to work quickly before light vanishes completely.

Working inside, placing your subject in a doorway or in front of a bright window another way to create a silhouette. 

Any light in front of the subject will make the silhouette harder to achieve. When shooting indoors, for example, turn off the interior lights and draw the curtains on any windows not being used to create the backlight. Outdoors, watch out for “natural reflectors” that could be bouncing light back into the scene, like water, windows, or white or light-colored walls and other surfaces.

While the light is most important, don’t ignore the rest of the composition. Take your time framing your shot. Avoid clutter and distractions. Silhouettes often work best when they are simple.

Hillary K. Grigonis/Digital Trends

Camera settings

If your camera supports it, we recommend setting the file type to RAW (check out the best RAW photography apps for your phone). This isn’t a requirement for a silhouette, but it will grant you more flexibility to tweak the image later compared to shooting a JPEG.

Next, switch to manual exposure or a semi-manual mode, like shutter priority or aperture priority. If you’ve never taken your camera off auto mode or aren’t yet comfortable in manual mode, aperture priority is probably the easiest way to go. This will let you set your aperture, while the camera controls the shutter speed automatically. Combined with exposure compensation, you’ll be able to fully control the look of the image. Most cameras, including phones, have some form of exposure compensation — see our guide on the feature for how to use it.

It may not be the most elegant solution, but the simplest way to figure out the proper exposure for a silhouette is to guess and check. Snap a picture and see how it looks — if your subject is too bright, simply turn down the exposure. If you’re using manual exposure, you can adjust either shutter speed or aperture; in a semi-manual mode, turn exposure compensation down to –1 to start, take another test shot, and continue from there.

If you’re more comfortable with your camera’s manual settings, you can jump-start this process by metering for the background. For example, when outdoors, point your camera at the sky, lock in the settings for a proper exposure, and then reframe the shot and take a test image.

Note: We recommend using a relatively small aperture, like f/8 or f/11, to keep your subject tack sharp and to create a deep depth of field, which keeps more of the photo in focus and is generally what you want in a silhouette.

The goal is to have a totally dark subject with a properly exposed background. Depending on the light in your specific scene, however, you may not get a perfect silhouette in the camera. Get as close as you can, and the rest can be corrected in post.

Hillary K. Grigonis/Digital Trends

Editing

Lighting conditions seldom being perfect, there’s a good chance you can further improve your silhouette by making some simple enhancements in editing software.

Open your images in your favorite photo editor. When working with a silhouette, your primary challenge will be fixing the contrast. If your subject was too bright in-camera, use the exposure, shadows, and blacks adjustment sliders to darken the image. The exposure slider will affect the entire photograph equally, while the shadows and blacks sliders will affect just the darker tonal regions. If your subject is dark but the background seems underexposed, as in the below example, you can raise the exposure, highlights, and whites sliders to make the image brighter. You may mix and match these techniques for the best overall result, both darkening shadows and increasing highlights.

For more advanced control, look to the curves tool. This will give you more granular control over the different tonal regions in the image. Or for expert-level enhancement, you can selectively darken or lighten specific regions of the image using adjustment brushes or dodge and burn tools — but this step isn’t usually necessary for the average silhouette.

Once you’re happy with the look of your silhouette, you can continue editing as you would a normal photograph, such as tweaking colors and cropping the composition. Increasing saturation, for example, may help your silhouette pop even more, while playing with the white balance and tint will alter the mood of the image, making it warmer or cooler.

Editors' Recommendations

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Best Camera Deals: Save on Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, and GoPro
fujifilm x t4 review set 2 dm 1

Whether you're looking for the best digital cameras or the best travel cameras, there are a ton of options out there, sometimes too many options, especially for those who aren't familiar with the photography world. Luckily, we've done a lot of legwork for you and collected a range of great camera deals across the spectrum, so even if you want something more sports-oriented, like a GoPro, there are a couple of deals for those too. So, let's jump right into it.
Today's Best Camera Deals
One of our favorite deals is the Canon EOS Rebel T7 going for $400, as it's one of the better DSLR cameras on the market, and it has a reasonably budget-friendly price on it, making it a great starter camera. Of course, if you've been in the game for a while and are looking for a powerful upgrade, the Sony Alpha 7R IV is one of the best full-frame cameras on the market, and while it still costs a hefty $3,200, that's still $300 off the usual $3,500 price tag. That said, if you're looking for something more portable and action-oriented, you can't go wrong with the GoPro HERO11 Black Mini, although if you're a professional content creator, the GoPro HERO9 Black 5K is probably the one to go for instead.

Do I Need a DSLR or a Mirrorless Camera?
Like most things, this really depends on what you're trying to do. Mirrorless cameras have fewer internal moving parts, which generally means they can capture images quicker, so if you're taking pictures of action-packed stuff like sports or animals in the wilderness, a mirrorless camera is a great option. On the other hand, DSLR cameras are great for low-light conditions and are great for anything from portraits to landscapes. DSLRs are also cheaper and have much better battery life, as well as having a decade or two worth of lenses to choose from.

Read more
How to blur a background in photos
A person photographed with iPhone 11's portrait mode.

Introducing a background blur to your photos can draw attention to a specific subject, such as an individual in a portrait or an item in a still life, while also adding a professional flair to your image. This beautiful background blur, also known as bokeh, can be achieved even after shooting your photo, thanks to advances in editing software. This guide will walk you through the process on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS.

Read more
How to download Instagram photos (5 easy ways)
Instagram app running on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Instagram is amazing, and many of us use it as a record of our lives — uploading the best bits of our trips, adventures, and notable moments. But sometimes you can lose the original files of those moments, leaving the Instagram copy as the only available one . While you may be happy to leave it up there, it's a lot more convenient to have another version of it downloaded onto your phone or computer. While downloading directly from Instagram can be tricky, there are ways around it. Here are a few easy ways to download Instagram photos.

Read more