From the course: Silhouette Photography: Shooting and Post Processing

What is a silhouette? - Lightroom Tutorial

From the course: Silhouette Photography: Shooting and Post Processing

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What is a silhouette?

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- [Instructor] Silhouette photography. What is a silhouette and why should we learn how to create them? We've seen silhouettes everywhere from the iconic Apple advertisements of the dancing iPod listeners, to cameo jewelry, to my favorite little shop on Main Street that has talented artists that expertly carve profiles in paper while you wait. But what is a silhouette and why should we learn in-depth how to create them? Simply put, a silhouette is a dark shape against something lighter and brighter. It emphasizes the form of the subject over the color value. With a regular photograph, we see tonal values. With a silhouette we only have the dark shape against the lighter background to tell our story. Reducing our subject to just an outline forces us to think about the composition in a new way. We have to convey emotion and message just using that form. By focusing on the silhouette of a person or a scene, we are challenged to tell a story with just that shape and color. On the one hand, this format is incredibly limiting, but on the other hand, it frees us up to be so creative in super exciting ways. Silhouettes are a kind of visual storytelling that can be incredibly powerful. Mastering silhouette photography can benefit our photography from form to composition. You know, it's a great tool to have in our tool belt. I'm excited to dive in.

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