2021 WEEK 23: People / Silhouettes

The Talk by Ulrike Lukasczyk

Expose for the sky

Let’s try and combine some technical and creative aspects of photography: We are creating some interesting shots of people’s silhouettes. And with silhouettes I mean real SILHOUETTES and NOT SHADOWS.

Technically this can be easily achieved by exposing for the sky or some very light parts of your image. By doing so you deliberately underexpose any person standing in front of this light area and create a silhouette. Try to find settings with enough space and directed light and place your subject accordingly.

The more interesting silhouettes are in the process of doing something still recognisable: walking, jumping, dancing with a little separation between their limbs. Framing, leading lines and the rule of thirds might also help to capture the viewer’s attention.

Links and technical advice

Please find a very useful wrap-up of the process of taking photos of silhouettes including tips for exposure settings here:

https://www.captureyourdays.com/silhouette-photo/

Example photos

More ideas and unique approaches in the
Pinterest moodboard

Challenge Summary

  • Take a new photo of a person’s silhouette
  • Apply the basic elements composition and expose carefully for the bright parts of your scene
  • SOOC (straight out of camera) or edited post your photo during the week of Sunday, June 6 and Saturday, June12.
  • Please remember to comment on at least FIVE photo submissions this week by answering the question “why?” in your comments. In other words, “why do I like (or not like) this photo?” or “why did this photo catch my eye?” Thank you!

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple

  • Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
  • Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo:  #2021photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
  • Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2021 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.

About Ulrike Lukasczyk

While photography always fascinated me I seriously started learning techniques and composition only back in 2016. One of my first sources of learning material and feedback was this group: The Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge. Being insatiably curious I dived into all kinds of subjects and techniques until I finally dared to photograph people. That really is what excites me most about photography: capturing real people at the right moment, their personalities, their stories and even their dreams. This is contrasting quite nicely with my day-to-day business. I’ve got an engineering degree in biotechnology and work full time as a scientist in research. At least my husband and two kids also like my photography hobby and encourage me to pursue it, modeling for me or discussing my ideas. We live in a village near Darmstadt in Germany. We like traveling with our Unimog camper (www.derullimog.de) and I also enjoy horseback riding and Yoga. Now I’m very happy and excited to join the admin team of this group and give something back to the community: challenge ideas, encouragement and photography tips. My photos can be found via the search function in the Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge group on Facebook, on Instagram at www.instagram.com/mindseyes_ul/ or my portfolio site: https://ulliluke.myportfolio.com.